DUSHANBE, November 11, 2012, Asia-Plus — It is necessary to establish markets for sale of raw cotton so that farming units would have an opportunity to freely sell their harvests, Dr. Hojimuhammad Umarov, an expert on the Tajik economy, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Such markets should function in all cotton growing districts of the country,” noted the expert. “Tajikistan’s cotton harvests have been increasing in recent couple of years. Cotton growers are interested in yielding more cotton because the international cotton prices have been rising.”
“Today, farmers receive up to 800 U.S. dollars per one ton of raw cotton while actually, they should receive at least 1,200 U.S. dollars per ton of raw cotton with regard to current international cotton prices,” said Professor Umarov. “But since there are no markets for sale of raw cotton in the country, farmers are forced to sell their harvests to the cotton-ginning enterprises under the previously concluded agreements.”
The expert further added that cotton-ginning enterprises were now owned by former futures companies that had purchased raw cotton from the cotton growing farms in the previous years.
Meanwhile, an official source at the crop sector department of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), says Tajik farmers are continuing to yield cotton. “They are currently yielding up to 500 tons of raw cotton per day,” he noted.
We will recall that Tajik cotton growers fulfilled this year’s cotton target that has been established at 401,000 tons of raw cotton in early November.
This year, Tajik farmers have planted cotton on some 200,000 hectares. Last year, 203,000 hectares were allocated to cotton cultivation and farmers produced 403,000 tons of cotton in 2011.
Cotton makes an important contribution to both the agricultural sector and the national economy. Cotton accounts for some 60 percent of agricultural output, supports 75 percent of the rural population, and uses 45 percent of irrigated arable land. At the national level, it is an important source of both export earnings and tax revenue. Tajikistan is the world’s fourth largest exporter of cotton, and there is strong demand on international markets for its high quality product.
