KULOB, June 4, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A special commission that has been set up to save cotton in Khatlon’s Kulob district today is visiting farming units in Kulob district.

Umar Kabirov, a chief agronomist with the Kulob agriculture directorate, said that this year’s cotton season was very difficult and local farmers had to replant cotton on up to 25 percent of areas under cotton.  According to him, to improve the situation a special commission, consisting of 12 specialists in agriculture, has been set up.

“To speed up maturation in cotton we now need large amount of mineral fertilizers, especially the phosphoric fertilizers,” Kabirov said.

He noted that 1,650 somoni worth of phosphoric fertilizers were need for one hectare of cotton field while farmers did not have such funds.  “The commission will closely monitor the situation in cotton-growing farms,” Kabirov said, noting that this year, the Kulob district has planted cotton on 400 hectares and local farmers plan to yield 10,000 tons of raw cotton this year.