DUSHANBE, March 1, 2016, Asia-Plus – President Emomali Rahmon has warned of possible drought and crop failure this year because of winter with a little snow and early spring.  The president has also called on the population to stockpile food.

He also pointed to the necessity of minimizing expenditures on government events and popular traditions and rituals.

The warning and the call came during an address to the government meeting in Dushanbe on February 29.

According to the Tajik president’s official website, the meeting heard the report on lands and their categories, types of agricultural areas and land users.

The government also approved changes and addenda offered to the country’s laws on licensing of separate types of activity, state duty, freedom of conscience and religious associations, licensing system, state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, and the country’s air code.

The meeting also endorsed government’s resolutions on amendments offered to the laws on financial leasing and Tajikistan’s peacekeeping activity as well as the country’s code of the execution of criminal penalties.