DUSHANBE, February 27, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) intends to submit proposals on effective distribution of state funds to cotton-growing for consideration of the government, Asia-Plus has learned from Narzullo Dadaboyev, a spokesman for a MoA.

According to him, the ministry suggests that state funds should not be allocated to farms producing less than 2.0-2.5 tons of cotton per hectare.

“This suggestion is based on survey of last year’s cotton-harvesting campaign and analysis of cotton yields of all cotton-growing farms,” said Dadaboyev, “We intend to recommend banks to take into account cotton productivity of farms while concluding loan agreements with them that will allow them to determine whether farms will able to repay state funds provided in loans promptly or not.”

Specialists from the MoA economy and prognosis directorate have already conducted survey of yields of cotton fields in the Sughd province, the spokesman said.

According to the survey, 17 cotton-growing farms in northern Tajikistan last year produced 2.0 to 3.22 tons of cotton per hectare on a total area of 8,492 ha, 30 other farms reported cotton yields of 1.5 to 2.0 tons per ha (18,000 ha), 35 farms produced 1.0 to 1.5 tons of cotton per hectare on 26,400 hectares, and 20 farming units last year reported cotton yields of 0.4 to 1.0 ton per ha (8,100 ha).  Sughd farmers last year yielded 89,300 tons of cotton and an average cotton productivity was 1.42 tons per ha.  We will recall that their target has been determined at 172,000 tons of raw cotton.

The spokesman added that survey of yields of cotton-growing farms in the Khatlon province will be finished within the next few days.

We will recall that the government intends to allocate 180 million somoni from the national budget for providing in loans to cotton-growing farms through banks.  115 million somoni of this amount will be provided to cotton farmers in Khatlon, 45 million somoni will be provided to cotton-growing farms in Sughd and 20 million somoni will provided in loans to farmers in districts subordinate to the center (RRPs).

Last year, the government allocated 1540 million somoni and only 37 million somoni have been repaid so far.

As it had been reported earlier, speaking to reporters in Dushanbe on January 22, Agriculture Minister Qosim Qosimov said the government would help farmers make the change from cotton to other crops more suitable to their circumstances.  The minister said farms producing less than 2.5 tons of cotton per hectare should not be compelled to grow it.  "The ministry will not insist that they should grow cotton," he said.