DUSHANBE, March 12, Asia-Plus  -- Extreme winter weather has inflicted serious damage to the country’s agrarian sector, Tohir Sodiqov, the head of grain and industrial crops department within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) said.

 According to him, winter grains in northern Tajikistan have been partially affected by unusually cold weather this year.  “In some districts of the Sughd province, the winter grains have not been affected seriously and if additional fertilizing is good it will be possible to restore some 90 percent of the affected crops,” Sodiqov said. 

A working group, comprising specialists from a MoA and led by Sodiqov, was on a week-long visit to the province to get acquainted with a progress of preparations for the spring sowing campaign.  

 A similar commission visited districts subordinate to the center (RRPS).  

According to the MoA, the country’s agrarian sector has suffered an estimated some 700 million somonis in economic damage from this year’s extreme winter weather.