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Cotton yield to see growth in Azerbaijan

28 November 2018 10:44 (UTC+04:00)
Cotton yield to see growth in Azerbaijan

By Narmina Mammadova

Cotton is one of the oldest natural fibers in the World, which has been grown in Egypt, India, Pakistan, America, China.

Azerbaijan with its favorable climate and soil is an ideal place for development of the cotton industry. Cotton-growing has always been a tradition in Azerbaijan, where people have been engaged in cotton growing for centuries.

Today, the state is making every effort to further develop the cotton industry and make it more productive.

"This year cotton is planted on 132,000 hectares in Azerbaijan. Next year we plan to plant 100,000 hectares with cotton," Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov said at the opening of the State Agrarian Center in Masalli region, Report.az informed.

"The cotton picking season is coming to an end. To date, 215, 000 tons of cotton have been harvested. This year the average yield is16 centners per hectare, which exceeds last year’s figure. Next year we plan to increase the yield. Our goal is to achieve high yield," said the minister.

2016 was a turning point from the perspective of cotton-growing in the country. In 2016, cotton was planted on an area of 51,000 hectares, while the harvest hit 90,000 tons. That is three times more than in 2015.

Cotton production is most developed in Saatli, Bilasuvar, Barda, Aghjabadi and Sabirabad.

President Ilham Aliyev constantly makes accent on importance of developing this sphere. The head of state recently said that Azerbaijan restored the glory of cotton growing, havin increased crop area of cotton by about three times.

In early 2017, the State Program for 2017-2022 was approved with an aim of strengthening measures directed at developing this sphere. The purpose of the State Program is to develop cotton growing, increase export potential in this sphere, ensure employment of the rural population and increase the production.

The new goal of the state is to bring the cotton production up to 500,000 tons by 2022 from the current 260,000 tons.

Earlier, it was also reported that the number of varieties of cultivated colored cotton may increase in Azerbaijan.

Head of the State Seed Control Service of the Ministry of Agriculture Imran Jumshudov said that two varieties of colored cotton were grown so far in order to accumulate experience, adding that the climate of Azerbaijan allows growing such varieties of cotton, as colored and organic.

"For the time being, brown and light-brown cotton is grown in Azerbaijan. However, there are also varieties of red, green, light pink and blue cotton. If the already planted varieties give a big harvest, in the future other varieties of colored cotton can be grown in Azerbaijan,” he said.

There are ancient traditions of cotton in Azerbaijan. A flap of cotton fabric several thousand years old was found during excavations at the construction site of the Mingachevir Hydro Power Plant (HPP).

Cotton is a drought-resistant plant, but it does not tolerate frost and low temperatures, so Azerbaijan is a safe place to grow it.

At the beginning of the eighties, Azerbaijan harvested up to a million tons of cotton per year. But then, like all other industries, as in all other Union republics, cotton growing declined and it could not receive the necessary investments for revival for a long time after that.

That is, on the one hand, Azerbaijan has a rich potential and experience in this matter, whereas, on the other hand, there is a high need. The oil era is coming to an end, or at least the events of recent years have made the world's oil countries understand that the state treasury is not filled with oil, and attempts to prove the opposite are fraught. And Azerbaijan became one of the first countries that promptly reacted to the challenges of the time, set as one task the diversification of the economy, in particular, the development of the non-oil sector.

On top of that, cotton growing is a highly profitable segment of the agrarian industry. Cotton is used in various areas of life. It goes to the textile processing for the production of cotton yarn first of all. Cotton is used to produce fabrics, knitwear, threads, cotton wool and more. Cotton fluff and cotton mats are used in the chemical industry as raw materials for the manufacture of artificial fibers and threads, films, varnishes, etc. It is also used in explosives ... The practice of other states shows that cotton production can bring millions to the budget.

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