Turkmenistan aims to increase grain production
By Kamila Aliyeva
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov set a goal for 2017 to produce 1.6 million tons of wheat, Turkmen government reported in a message.
Turkmenistan began to cultivate wheat in the years of the country’s independence, and it has been exporting the surplus of the harvest since 2011.
In 2015, over 1,406 million tons of grain was cultivated in Turkmenistan. In 2016, 1.6 million tons of bread-grain was harvested in the country.
Agriculture in Turkmenistan is a significant sector of the economy which contributes 12.7 percent of the GDP and employs 48.2 percent of the workforce.
The planted area covers 760,000 hectares.
The state provides full support to agricultural industry workers, which is expressed in large investments to technical re-equipment and modernization of the entire production infrastructure of agriculture, the development of chemical industry, and providing farmers with mineral fertilizers. Modern tractors, combines, seeders, other machinery and equipment are purchased for agro-industrial complex (AIC) needs.
A good incentive to improve the productivity of farmers’ interest in the cultivation of increasingly high yields lies in a systematic increase of prices for wheat, soft loans provided for farmers' associations, tenants, entrepreneurs for the purchase of agricultural machinery, and financing of other expenses.
Due to the course on comprehensive agrarian reform, the huge potential of this sector is being realized.