KULOB, April 24, Asia-Plus  -- The Kulob mayor Homid Abdulloyev told a press conference in Kulob on April 23 that two mechanical cotton harvesters will work during this year’s cotton-harvesting campaign in the Kulob district for the first time since the end of the 20th century.  

According to him, local specialists intend to assemble two cotton harvesters from parts collected in different farming units. 

“Over the past nearly twenty years, the cotton harvesters have not been in operation in the region and they have already outlived their service life, you know,” said the mayor, “We will have to send specialists to Uzbekistan for some units and spare parts for those two cotton harvesters” 

He noted that the cotton harvesters will be used in the farming units Hamadoni and Khatlon in the Kulob district, which are seed-growing farms and therefore have not been divided into small dehqan (peasant) farms.  

            This year, Kulob farmers have planted cotton on 4,500 hectares and the district intends to yield some 10,000 tons of cotton this year.  The mechanical cotton harvesters are supposed to be used for gathering cotton from at least 300 hectares.