QURGHON TEPPA, February 27, Asia-Plus -- The Khatlon province is running late with preparing agricultural machines for the spring field works.

Sulam Cholakov, the head of the mechanization department of the Khatlon agriculture directorate, said that they had to date prepared 1,098 sowing-machines, or 98 percent of the overall number (1,402), for the sowing campaign.  

He also added that of 1,495 ploughing machines, only 810 had to date been made ready for the cotton-sowing campaign.  

According to him, the province has received 505 various agricultural machines since 2000 and at present the overall number of agricultural machines in Khatlon is 8,715.  The agriculture directorate official noted that in 1994, there were more than 18,000 various agricultural machines in the region.  

“The quality of fuels supplied to the province also leave much to be desired,” said Cholakov, “We do not proper labs for testing fuels quality.”