DUSHANBE, November 25, 2008, Asia-Plus -- Compared to last year, areas under winter crops will have been increased by 50 percent and winter wheat will have been planted on an area of totaling 170,000 hectares of irrigated lands, Saidmurod Bahriddinov, the head of the crops sector department within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said.

         According to him, farmers have planted winter crops on more than 87,000 hectares, including 80,000 hectares of irrigated lands, so far.  

         “45,000 tons of the winter wheat seeds have been stocked in for this year’s sowing campaign,” Bahriddinov said, noting that they expect farmers to yield 510,000 tons of the winter wheat from 170,000 hectares, with average yields of 3 tons per one hectare.      

         Besides, Tajikistan has some 200,000 hectares of dry-farming land as well as lands used by the population, he said.  

         “If our proposals will be put into practice, farmers will be able to yield some 1 million tons of wheat that will allow meeting some 70%-80% the country’s annual requirements in cereals,” the MoA official stressed.   

         On planting wheat on the dry-farming land, he noted that if the sowing campaign is completed before winter, farmers may have average yields of 1.0-1.5 tons/ha.  

         According to him, average winter wheat yields may amount to 3.0-3.5 ton/ha, while some farms may have yields of even 5.0-6.0 tons/ha.  

We will recall that Tajikistan has 496,000 hectares of irrigated lands.