KULOB, October 8, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- In all, 33,477 people worked in cotton plantations in Khatlon’s Kulob zone on October 7 and they picked on average 41 kilograms of cotton each, Abdullo Rajabov, a lead specialist with the Kulob agriculture directorate, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, five cotton-growing districts in the Kulob zone have yielded 26,219 tons of raw cotton by October 8, which is 48.89 percent of this year’s target.

“Farmers in the Hamadoni district have reached 56.7 percent of their target to this date,” said Rajabov.  “They are followed by Vose cotton farmers who have reached 55.6 percent of their target and cotton-growing farms in the Farkhor district have reached 48.8 percent of the target so far.”

He added that this year, cotton farmers in the Kulob zone had refused help of volunteers.