Why has the state program disappeared from the website of the ministry?

On February 10, the website of the Ministry of Agriculture published the following report: "An online meeting was held on livestock development and future tasks in Azerbaijan." It was also noted in the report that "the work done on the implementation of the State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023 has brought results."

I easily found the State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023 mentioned in the state programs (the program is attached) section of the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and wrote my thoughts related to the implementation of this state program.

The article was published on the website of Turan News Agency on February 20, 2021, under the heading "Non-professional, Superficial and Primitive Programs". The article noted that the goals set in the State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023 are insignificant. Such that as a result of the implementation of the state program, meat production is expected to increase by 52,000 tons to 368,000 tons by 2029 compared to 2017. That is, according to the developers of the program, the annual increase in meat production will be 5,200 tons. Before the adoption of this program, naturally, the annual increase in meat production was 10.7 thousand tons; however, the adopted state program aims to increase meat production by an average of 5.2 thousand tons (2 times less) each year.

We asked why there was a need to develop a state program for this ?! The program also aims to increase milk production to 2.48 million tons by 2023. However, in 2019, 2.54 million tons of milk were consumed. The goal of the state program is to get less milk in 2023 than the current milk consumption. In addition, in order to achieve the planned goals, it is planned to establish cattle and small cattle farms at the expense of state funds, purchase and import of cattle and small cattle.

Immediately after the publication of this article, the Ministry of Agriculture removed from its website the State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023 and, as mentioned above, the part of the report related to the state program and published in its website. And then, on March 11, 2021, an article written by Murvat Hasanli on AzPolitika.info, musavat.com, cia.az, bia.az websites claimed that there was no such state program at all.

Businessman Murvat Hasanli’s articles with similar content under similar headings were published in different websites, such as "Vahid Maharramov's fraud: A few words about the non-existent state program" on the website of Yeni Musavat, "A few words about fraud or non-existent state program" on the website of azpolitika.info, etc. Articles by Murvat Hasanli on these websites state: “When reading a "scientific article" entitled "Non-professional, Superficial and Primitive Programs" written by Vahid Maharramov, who tries to present himself as a "great agricultural specialist", "agro-analyst", for Turan News Agency, I remembered a proverb, "Throw mud at someone you don't like, and even if it doesn't stick, it will leave a mark", which is about the working principles of lying.

Vahid Maharramov, a member of the Coordination Center of the National Council, also used these methods against the government he did not like. Leaving the classic liars one step behind, he not only falsified the figures but also invented a "state program" that did not exist, and based all his views on this "fake document". According to him, the title of the document is "State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023". After reading the analysis of the "agricultural specialist", my search for that document did not yield any results.

When I appealed to people I know closely in the Ministry of Agriculture, it became clear that the document with that name did not exist at all. Apparently, the specialist we are talking about took on a "legislative" mission and invented a new "state program" in order to receive an award from Turan News Agency. We leave it to the News Agency and the National Council to determine what its name is.”

I would like to note once again that the article entitled "Non-professional, Superficial and Primitive Programs" published on the website of Turan News Agency on February 20, 2021, was written based on the report published on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture under the heading "An online meeting was held on livestock development and future tasks in Azerbaijan".

I present the relevant paragraph of the report spread on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture at that time: "It was noted at the event that the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, declared the development of the agrarian sector as one of the priorities. It was noted that the state is taking systematic support measures for the development of the agricultural sector, including livestock. The instructions given by the President in recent years, the work done to implement the State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023 have brought results."

Immediately after the article entitled "Non-professional, Superficial and Primitive Programs" was published on the website of Turan News Agency on February 20, 2021, that paragraph was changed to the following form: "It was noted at the event that the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, declared the development of the agrarian sector as one of the priorities. It was noted that the state is taking systematic support measures for the development of the agricultural sector, including livestock. The instructions given by the President in recent years, the work done to develop livestock have brought results." As you can see, the phrase "State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023" was removed from the original text.

I think that after reading the article on the website of the Turan News Agency under the heading "Non-professional, Superficial and Primitive Programs", the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture realized that their program was very unsuccessful and primitive and removed it from the website of the ministry. They even wrote an article about it and sent it to various websites through Murvat Hasanov.

Furthermore, information on the implementation of the State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023 published on February 10 by the Ministry of Agriculture was also posted on other websites. You can get acquainted with some of this information on many websites: as stated in the initial report of the ministry, Fed.az^[1], sitat.news^[2], unikal.org^[3] and other websites state that “The instructions given by the President in recent years, the work done on the implementation of the State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023 have brought results.”

How did the "author of the article", who claimed that such a document did not exist, and his acquaintances in the Ministry of Agriculture, who said that "there is no document with that name at all", ignore the state program, which has been put up for public discussion since early 2019? After all, the minister, representatives of ministries, representatives of executive bodies, and farmers took part in the public discussions of the draft State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023.

I should also note that we have repeatedly expressed our views so far on Astna.biz regarding the superficial and unprofessional preparation of the adopted state programs and the lack of monitoring of the implementation of the adopted programs. 14 days after the article published on the website of Turan News Agency on February 20, 2021, under the heading "Non-professional, Superficial and Primitive Programs", on March 6, 2021, the Rules for the Development, Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation of State Programs were approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The main purpose of the adoption of the Rules was to improve the process of development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of state programs.

It would be good if the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture takes seriously the preparation of documents of state importance. Look, although many state programs have been adopted for the development of crop production and animal husbandry in agriculture for a long time, there are no results. The lack of results is due to the unprofessional, primitive, and superficial preparation of the adopted documents. It would be better if the Ministry of Agriculture uses the services of professionals in the development of state programs.

P. S. The State Program on Livestock Development and Efficient Use of Pasture Areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023, which Murvat Hasanli "could not find" and was published on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, is attached.

Vahid Maharramov

[1] https://fed.az/az/aqrar/etlik-heyvandarliq-teserrufatlarinin-yaradilmasinin-muzakire-edilib-99914?fbclid=IwAR0Ks7Re9eN-oYe1OT4xZsqi6VeEsiGvM5IRju9KC879UA2QZ0IPDK5vHpE

[2] https://sitat.news/nazir-musavire-kecirdi-yeni-melumat-bazasi-yaradilacaq?fbclid=IwAR2qIQWEPW25Npb803Chnz7dT7Fd7lopd_7LRo34zauNgJB5CE_lUo-r5jg,

[3] https://www.unikal.org/news/278253/inam-kerimov-onlayn-musavire-kecirib?fbclid=IwAR0yRAOqR3Zhr8Ohu7KjLJ7CJmhWBqj5ksuhDXHkYD27TE9TW85MmcWfrYc