DUSHANBE, May 20, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Despite this year''s heavy rains, Tajik farmer have planted cotton on 163,500 hectares to this day, which is 90 percent of areas (183,400 hectares) allotted to cotton in the country this year, according to the crop sector department with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).

“To-date, seeds have sprouted on more than 136,000 hectares which is 25,600 hectares fewer than last year,” the source said.

We will recall that Tajik farmers last year planted cotton on 170,400 hectares and yielded 296,000 tons of raw cotton.