Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Agriculture remains one of the profitable and attractive sectors for Azerbaijan’s economy, and entrepreneurs voice more offers to improve it on the background of the crude price crises.

First of all, the country needs to introduce agricultural specialization of regions, said Rajab Orujov, CEO of Qarabag-taxil company, Azerbaijan’s first pilot private grain-growing farm.

For instance, citrus fruits are planted in Lankaran and they enjoy high demand, so there is no need to grow tomatoes or corn there. Instead, these vegetables can be planted in the Aran regions of the country.

He further noted a need to comply with the seasonality of grain and industrial crops.

“Withdrawal of the cotton crop from rotation led to negative consequences at the time. The crop area remained virtually empty after July, and hot weather led to salinization of land. However, the decision on the state subsidies of re-seeding has become an incentive for both farmers and agriculture,” he said.

In general, it is necessary to select the main strategic directions for the agriculture development and to make every effort to reduce import dependence, the CEO added.

“70 percent of the land is irrigated in Azerbaijan. Further supported by the government, this will significantly increase the agricultural production,” said Orujov.

He believes that Azerbaijan has also all the possibilities to fully provide itself with grain.

A project for creation of large grain-growing farms is underway today, and several of such farms have already been created, he said. As a result, grain crops in the country will grow almost by 200,000 hectares.

Currently, the grain produced in Azerbaijan does not allow securing internal needs by 100 percent.

“There are subjective reasons behind this. It is necessary to provide the farms with high-quality seed varieties and competent agro-plan that is to ensure the timely application of fertilizers and agro-technical measures.

“In this case, the volume of domestic grain production is fully able to ensure consumption. Today, our production meets the demand for grain by 60-70 percent, and the rest is purchased,” he said.

New and innovative technologies are needed in agriculture to increase productivity and allow the country to become self-sufficient in food grains.

Grain growing is one of the strategic directions for any country, including Azerbaijan, which is home to durum wheat. About 3 million tons of grain was produced in Azerbaijan last year, and some 1.7 million tons of these products were wheat.

Orujov also spoke about the need to develop grain production, as this will have an impact on the reduction of imports of feed for livestock as well.

“The main feed crops are soybeans and corn, most of which are imported into the country. And this, in turn, is the reason for reducing the amount of currency in the country,” he explained.

Earlier Azerbaijan has exempted import and sale of wheat as well as production and sale of flour and bread from the value added tax, which is expected to increase local production.

MP Rafig Mammadhasanov also believes production of agricultural goods should be developed in Azerbaijan at the first place.

“Providing the population with food is one of the important tasks facing the state,” he said, stressing that Azerbaijan has all conditions for this.

Agricultural sector plays an important role in providing the 9.6-million population's food security in a best way and increasing the country's export potential.

To further develop agriculture, Azerbaijan needs modern equipment and a number of foreign countries are ready both importing their production and creating joint enterprises in the country.

Azerbaijan also plans to increase exports of agriculture products by entering the traditional markets with a larger volume and supplying the products to new markets.

__

Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’ staff journalist. Follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

Follow us on Twitter: @AzerNewsAz