Azerbaijan seek to increase number of grain producers
By Aynur Karimova
Azerbaijan is keen on developing grain production in the country to fully ensure self-sufficiency in this main product of the consumer basket.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Ilham Guliyev told journalists on January 20 that the country will increase the number of large farm enterprises engaged in grain production for this end.
He said that work on the development of agriculture sector will be continued.
“Our goal is to provide the country with all kinds of agricultural products at the expense of domestic production,” Guliyev noted. “We need to focus on production of local goods, and that will reduce our dependence on imports.”
The government is also taking agro-technical measures to improve the quality of grain, but increasing subsidies is not planned, he stated.
Azerbaijan, which has set grain growing as one of the strategic directions of the agriculture development, produced about 3 million tons of grain last year, and some 1.7 million tons of these products were wheat.
Currently, the grain produced in Azerbaijan does not allow securing internal needs by 100 percent. Today, this figure equals to 60-70 percent. Thus, Azerbaijan purchases the rest from abroad, in particular from Kazakhstan and Russia.
The government is implementing a project on establishing large grain-growing farms, while some 19 large farm enterprises engaged in grain production have already been established.
Experts believe that Azerbaijan can develop the grain growing by intensive ways, in particular, by attracting new and innovative technologies, which will increase productivity, as well as by building the appropriate infrastructure and improving human resources.
Also, implementing agro-technical measures, conducting researches for determining the areas of crops and ensuring the timely collection and preservation of these products are of significant importance for improving the quality of local grains.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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