DUSHANBE, July 30, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- ,All categories of farms have produced more than 455,000 tons of wheat since the beginning of this year, which is 220,000 tons more than in the same period of last year, Saidmurod Bahriddinov, the head of the crop production department within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, those more than 455,000 tons of wheat have been gathered from some 200,000 hectares (some 75 percent of areas under wheat) of farmland and average wheat yields have been estimated at 2.7 tons per one hectare.  “However, several farms have reported harvests of up to 6 tons/ha, suggesting that the full potential for productivity in Tajikistan has not yet been reached,” Bahriddinov said, noting that last year, average wheat yields in the country were 1.87 tons/ha.

“Khatlon farmers have gathered some 300,000 tons wheat from 117,000 hectares (85.7 percent of areas under wheat) to this date, which is 133,000 tons more than in the same period of last year,” said the MoA official, “The northern Sughd province has gathered 40,000 tons of wheat from 38,000 ha (69 percent of areas under wheat) and districts subordinate to the center have gathered more than 88,000 tons of wheat from 32,000 ha so far.”