DUSHANBE, February 23, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The government has allocated 6 million somoni from the national budget for purchase of high-quality cotton seeds for this year’s cotton-sowing campaign.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the head of the crop sector department within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Saidmurod Bahriddinov, said that the cotton seeds would be delivered from Turkey.  “We intend to purchase some 360-370 tons of high-quality cotton seeds that are expected to provide productivity at the rate of 5-6 tons per hectare,” the MoA official said.

The cotton sowing-campaign is usually launched in Tajikistan in late March, after the Navrouz holidays.  This year, Tajik farmers are expected to plant cotton on 200,000 hectares.