12:43 - 27.03.2018

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March 27, Fineko/abc.az. The republican meeting on cotton questions was held yesterday, 26 March, under the chairmanship of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the Center of Culture in Barda.

During the meeting President Aliyev stated that as a result of all-round measures, the country managed to achieve rapid development of cotton growing for a short period, and now the main task is to keep this positive trend, increase it, and take additional steps related to the further development of cotton-growing.

"This year cotton will be sown in 22 districts, and I hope yield in all those districts will be higher. There are some problems relating to crop yield, which should be eliminated. From now on, development of cotton growing in Azerbaijan should be ensured only by increasing yield capacity. Last year the average yield totaled 15.2 centners. Of course, such a figure can hardly suit us. This is a very low indicator. Despite the fact that for a short period – for two years, we succeeded to increase the harvesting of cotton by 6 times, and today we delivered more than 200,000 tons of cotton, and such yield, of course, does not suit us. If we were able to ensure an average yield of 20 quintals, last year we would be able to collect 270,000 tons of cotton," the head of state said.

He said that it is necessary to start using the system of alternate sowing, which will also give a serious impetus to the development of grain growing.

"The vast majority of cotton-cleaning plants operating today are enterprises that have remained since Soviet times. They have already become obsolete. True, they are operating, but they do not work with proper profitability. Therefore, we must gradually upgrade the processing industry. The construction of new cotton plants will simultaneously have positive impact on both quality and yield.

Farmers should be given high-quality fertilizers. In fact, the government has undertaken this large sphere. In particular, the government has undertaken 70% of cost of fertilizers. But it is needed to import high-quality fertilizers, and the relevant authorities should seriously monitor this question this year," President Aliyev said.