DUSHANBE, December 12, Asia-Plus  -- A scientific-technical center for providing food security has been set up at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection (MoAEP).

Agriculture and Environmental Protection Minister Abdurahmon Qodiri signed an appropriate order on this subject in early December.  

The source at a MoAEP said the center was set up to facilitate use of scientific achievements in the field of agriculture and environmental protection to enhance development Tajikistan’s agrarian sector.  

The center is headed by the agriculture minister and its members include senior representatives from the MoAEP, Agriculture University chancellor, Academy of Sciences president, etc.

According to the source, the center has to date taken a decision requiring cultivation of new cotton growths delivered from the United States, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, Bulgaria and India in  quarantine-introductive nursery farms in Qubodiyon, Tursunzoda and Spitamen.  1 million somonis have been provided from the national budget for this project.  

             One of the first meetings of the center has taken a decision on use of microbiological fertilizers produced by the scientific-production association Vostok in Russia’s Irkuts and use of achievements of the scientific companies Nanotechnology and Nano-GRU in the country’s agrarian sector.  At first, they will be used in 14 pilot farming units in different district across the country.