KULOB, February 3, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Four cotton-growing districts in Khatlon’s Kulob region have repaid 9,280,953 somoni of cotton loans so far, which is 34.78 percent some of the overall volume of funds provided by banks to local farms in loans last year for cotton sowing and harvesting campaign, Asia-Plus has learned from Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob.

In 2008, banks provided totaling 39,957,887 somoni to local cotton farmers, including 27,471,796 somoni allocated by the government and 12,486,091 somoni of their own funds.

The main money-lenders in the Kulob region are Agroinvestbonk and Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank).

Agroivnestbonk alone provided 18,340,756 somoni, with 15,268,078 somoni of them being state funds, to local cotton farmer last year.  To this date, cotton farmers have repaid 61.64 percent of the volume of loan funds received from Amonatbonk and 15.15 percent of the volume of loan funds received of from, Nematov said.