Azernews.Az

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that currently good crude cotton crop ripens on Turkmenistan fields.

"It is necessary to conduct qualitative and timely agrotechnical activities, prepare the whole agricultural machinery to the harvest season in order to reap the crop," he said, local media reported.

Noting that the main task is the organized launch and conduction of crucial agricultural campaign- cotton gathering, the President demanded from the province administration to carry out all works in strict accordance to agrotechnical norms.

Berdimuhamedov also noted that, it is necessary to give responsible and complex approaches to activities such as the flattening of lands, soil enrichment, conduction of arable works, as well as selection of high-yielding seed sorts.

Cotton is planted across 550,000 hectares in Turkmenistan. Given the soil and climatic conditions, especially of valuable fine-fiber cotton sorts are sown in two districts of the country- Mary and Akhal provinces.

Nearly 1.235 million tons of cotton was gathered last year, which is by 12.6 percent more compared to 2011. 36 cotton ginning factories are operating in the country.

Cotton is the main crude for energetically developing local textile industry and important source of income from exports of the raw material in China, Russia, Great Britain, South Korea, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Singapore, Ukraine and Baltic Sea countries.