KULOB, March 17, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- In 2009, the government gave a 23,973,187 somoni credit to four cotton producing districts in Khatlon’s Kulob zone through a number of banks and 59.62 percent (14,353,302 somoni) of that has been repaid to this day, Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

In all, banks gave 26,639,690 somoni in loans to 898 local farming units last year for planting cotton on a total area of 17,637 hectares.

“Cotton producing farms in Farkhor and Hamadoni district have already repaid 70 to 100 percent of loans,” Nematov said.

In the meantime, local cotton farmers have repaid only 86.15 percent of the government credit that was given to them in 2008.