New brand of agricultural machinery to appear in Uzbekistan
By Kamila Aliyeva
A recognizable brand of agricultural machinery will appear in Uzbekistan in the coming months, Uzbek media outlets reported.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed Uzagrotehsanoatholding JSC jointly with the Economy Ministry, Finance Ministry and the State Committee for Investments to prepare a Concept for the development of domestic agricultural machinery by mid-August, providing for the development and introduction of a domestic brand of agricultural machinery into production.
In addition, these agencies should submit a localization program for each type of agricultural machinery with a specific list of investment projects for the creation of new agricultural machinery enterprises and modernization, technical and technological re-equipment of the old ones until 2020, as well as a program to reduce the cost of agricultural machinery and its components. In this regard, special attention should be paid to attracting funds from international financial institutions.
The president also approved a new procedure for the purchase of equipment. Now the formation of the portfolio of orders for the supply of agricultural machinery will be carried out mainly in the course of regional fairs with the participation of domestic and leading world producers, held twice a year - in February-March and September-October. At the same time, in February-March it is planned to conclude additional contracts for the supply of agricultural machinery for the current year, and in September-October - for the coming year.
Currently, Uzbekistan’s park consists of 146,000 units of agriculture equipment, while the country’s needs exceed 172,000 units. The provision of farms with high-performance tractors is 75 percent, grain harvesters - 86 percent, cotton harvesters - 28 percent, cotton sowers - 60 percent, and grain sowers - 25 percent.
In total, taking into account the lack of equipment or outdated technology in the country, there is a need for 82,000 units of various agricultural machinery and equipment. Only this year it is planned to supply farmers with 16,000 units of equipment, including 5,800 units in the first half of the year.
Uzbekistan's economy depends heavily on agricultural production. Last year the volume of gross agricultural production in Uzbekistan reached 47.4 trillion soums. As of January 1, 2017, the number of operating farms exceeded 132,000 and dekhkan farms - 4.7 million.
In total, 8.2 million tons of grain, 2.9 million tons of potatoes, 11.2 million tons of vegetables, over 3 million tons of fruits and berries, 1.7 million tons of grapes, 2 million tons of melons and 2.9 million tons of raw cotton were produced in the country in 2016.
Because of the risks associated with a one-crop economy as well as from considerations of food security for the population, Uzbekistan has been trying to diversify its production of other agricultural products, while reducing cotton production.
The Central Asian nation intends to decrease production and public procurement of raw cotton up to 3 million tons by 2020.
Thus, Uzbekistan aims to increase production of grain crops up to 8.5 million tons with the growth rate of 16.4 percent by 2020 due to optimization of lands and introduction of modern agriculture technologies. It is also planned to increase production of potatoes by 35 percent, other vegetables by 30 percent, fruits and grapes 21.5 percent, meat by 26.2 percent, milk by 47.3 percent, eggs by 74.5 percent and fish by 2.5 times.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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