DUSHANBE, May 8, 2015, Asia-Plus – A cotton-sowing campaign is nearing completion in Tajikistan.
“To-date, cotton growers have sown cotton on more than 162,100 hectares, which is 90.4 percent of the cotton sowing target,” an official source at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) told Asia-plus in a interview today afternoon.
According to the MoA crop sector department, 179,200 hectares have been allocated to cotton cultivation this year.
Farmers in the southern Khatlon province have reportedly reached some 97.5 percent of their cotton sowing target. They have sown cotton on 116,000 hectares so far.
Cotton growers in the northern province of Sughd have reached 77 percent of the target. To-date, they have sown cotton on 41,600 hectares, the source said.
According to him, districts subordinate to the center have reached 47 percent of their cotton-sowing target. Farmers in these districts have reportedly sown cotton on some 3,700 hectares so far.
Experts from the MoA expect Tajik farmers to yield some 400,000 tons of raw cotton this year.
Last year, Tajik farmers yielded 390,000 tons of raw cotton from some 178,000 hectares.
