DUSHANBE, June 6, 2014, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan intends to increase potato production and Russia’s Closed Joint-Stock Company (CJSC) Kolnag is ready to provide local farming units with elite and super elite potato seeds.
An official source at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) says Tajikistan intends to increase annual production of potatoes to 1.5 million tons.
“Current average potato yields in Tajikistan are 2.5 tons/ha while elite and super elite potato seeds will allow increasing potato yields to 10 tons/ha,” said the source. “Tajikistan needs more than 150,000 tons of potato seeds for sowing.”
These issues were a major topic of a meeting of Tajik Minister of Agriculture Qosim Rahbar with Kolnag top manager Aleksey Aldoshkin that took place here at end of last week.
They also discussed issues related to delivery of agricultural machines to Tajikistan and delivery of Tajik early agricultural products to the Russian oblasts of Sverdlovsk and Tyumen.
Kolnag has reportedly supplied special agricultural equipment to Tajikistan in recent years for sowing seed potatoes in Panj, Jirgatol, and Tojikobod districts.
The Russian company has also cooperated with Production Cooperative named after Latif Murodov, which is located in the Hisor district.
“Kolnag has supported the production cooperative’s plan to build refrigerating premises for storing early agricultural products,” the source said.
According to him, the production cooperative planted potatoes on 30 hectares and they reported harvests of up to 30 tons/ha from four hectares that had been sown with elite seeds in accordance with modern technologies.
Last year, Tajikistan produced nearly one million tons of potatoes. Current Tajikistan’s annual requirements in potatoes are 900,000 tons.
CJSC Kolnag is known Russian producer and supplier of modern equipment for intensive resource-saving technologies for production of vegetables as well as production and distribution of balanced feed mix for cattle.
