DUSHANBE, September 3, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- 70,000 families in the southern Khatlon province will receive humanitarian aid in a form of wheat seeds in October-November this year, according to press service of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).  

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Narzullo Dadaboyev, a spokesman for a MoA, said that that issue was the focus of a September 1 meeting of Minister of Agriculture Qosim Qosimov with Behzod Shamsiyev, cotton sector development project manager, World Bank Dushanbe Office, and Bobojon Yatimov, agriculture projects coordinator, World Bank Dushanbe Office.  

1,200 tons of wheat seeds are expected to be delivered to Tajikistan from Russia in October-November this year for further distribution to 19 districts in the Khatlon province, the spokesman said.  

According to him, the wheat seeds will be distributed, first of all, to vulnerable families, single-parent families as well as families, which have land plots of not more than 1,000 square meters.  

In the course of the talks, the sides also discussed further moves to settle the cotton sector debt problems and agreed to invite international experts to study the cotton sector debt situation and work out specific measures to tackle this problem.