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Cotton production suffering setbacks in Azerbaijan

19 September 2014 08:37 (UTC+04:00)
Cotton production suffering setbacks in Azerbaijan

By Nigar Orujova

Cotton production industry, once a very productive sphere in Azerbaijan is now suffering from some setbacks.

Over the past 18 years, cotton production decreased by six times in the country. Moreover, the amount of acreages fell by nine times.

Azerbaijan produced 2.7 million tons of cotton in 1995, while in 2013 the comparable figure stood at 452,000 tons already.

A significant decrease is also observed in the cotton acreage - the cultivated area was 2.1 million hectares in 1995, while in 2013 it increased to 235,000 hectares.

Azerbaijani experts in agriculture say this decrease is resulted from the falling of the cotton's prices in the world markets and the low profitability of cotton breeding. Meanwhile, there is no room for competitiveness in this sphere.

Cotton breeding is also inflicting loses on the farmers. The fall of the industry has also led to the increase of the unemployment especially in the regions.

Moreover, high usage of artificial material worldwide has negatively affected the cotton growing sector.

Expert Nizami Garayev said to a local press that to find a way out, Azerbaijan has started to import more productive varieties. As a result, the decline in production is lower than the reduction in acreage. So, the yield increased with the usage of more productive technologies and varieties.

Moreover, to reduce the cost of production, both companies engaged in cotton production in the country began to use a machine harvesting technology.

Yield losses in cotton production can have serious consequences for agriculture of Azerbaijan, Garayev believes. Recently, the practice of sharing of crop was carried out in Azerbaijan, where cotton was replaced by wheat. Today, the cotton-wheat system is replaced by the wheat-wheat one, which ultimately reduces the yield of wheat.

Cotton is produced in Azerbaijan only for import. Despite of the decrease in production in Azerbaijan, Russia increased its import of cotton from Azerbaijan by almost 20 percent in 2013.

Moreover, the companies specialized in the cotton production buys cotton with seed that is very valuable. In the livestock sector, the cottonseeds are very much appreciated. Along with this sector, it is also used to produce oil.

Thus, the situation is very favorable for the companies buying cotton, but not for the farmers, who produce it, creating unfair price situation.

Garayev proposes to press ahead with the measures to reduce the cost of cotton production in the country.

"It is necessary to use new technologies, minerals and varieties to lower the cost of cotton production in the country. In this case, the Azerbaijani cotton will be competitive in the world markets. Under current conditions, it cannot withstand the price competition, and farmers reclassify into other areas of agriculture, including vegetables cultivation, which is more cost-effective," he added.

In addition, the world production of cotton in the 2014-2015 will decline by 0.5 percent in comparison with the 2013-2014, and will be 25.6 millions of tons.

Average price of cotton in the 2014-2015 is expected to reach 61.80 cents/lb, which is 26.6 percent lower than in the 2013-2014.

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