DUSHANBE, September 6, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- This year, a mass cotton harvesting campaign began in the country on September 1, which is some ten days later than usual.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the delay in harvesting cotton has resulted from bad weather conditions during the cotton-sowing campaign.

The source at a MoA says Tajik farmers have yielded more than 10,000 tons of raw cotton by September 6.

This year, Tajik farmers are expected to yield 380,000 tons of cotton.  Farming units have planted cotton on 162,287 hectares while 184 hectares have been allocated to cotton this year.

This year, Sughd farmers have planted cotton on some 54,000 hectares, cotton farmers in Khatlon province have planted cotton on 100,500 hectares and districts subordinate to the center have planted cotton on 7,812 hectares, the source added.

We will recall that last year, Tajik cotton yielded 296,000 tons of raw cotton from 170,400 hectares.