Agrarian sector of Azerbaijan develops in sided way

As previously reported, the President of Azerbaijan signed an April 16 decree on additional measures to improve management in the agricultural sector and accelerate institutional reforms.

The decree provides for the establishment of regional and city administrations of the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure the implementation of agrarian policy in the areas to arrange for state support to agriculture, effective cooperation between central and local executive bodies of the structural units in solving the problems of the agrarian sector.

Currently, the main documents regulating the development of the agricultural sector in Azerbaijan are two government programs: for reliable maintenance of the population in 2008-2015, food, beverages, and food security.

To achieve the goals set by state programs funding of agriculture from the state budget increased in 2014 compared to the rate in 2008 and almost doubled, reaching 535.9 million manat. According to official statistics in 2013, in Azerbaijan agricultural output at current prices amounted to 5244.6 million manat, increasing with respect to 2012 by 4.9 percent. Growth of crop production amounted to 4.2 %, animal products – to 5.5%.

In the past year, with 1073.7 thousand hectares of acreage of grain (including corn) were collected 2961.9 thousand tons of crop, which is 5.7 percent more than in 2012. Cereal yields in the past year were 27.6 quintals per hectare. 64.1 per cent of cereals produced in 2013 made up wheat (1,898.1 tons), and seven percent - corn (208.2 thousand tons).

In the past five years the average annual meat production reached 270 thousand tons, milk - 1.62 million tons, eggs - 1.2 billion units. Thus, the self-sufficiency of meat and meat products is 94 % and in poultry meat - 92%. Country is self-sufficient in eggs by 96.5 %, and in milk and dairy products - by 75%. At the same time, Azerbaijan is still dependent on imports of sugar, grains, tea, fruits and vegetables.

   Expert economist Vahid Maharramov told Turan that we should not accept the results of the food programs. For example, as a target it was supposed to bring the production of tea to 3,000 tons per year. And this is despite the fact that the annual average between 2004 and 2008 was 640 tons of tea production. "We are talking about approximately fivefold increase. What do we have?" asked the economist. “Average annual production of tea for the last five years compared to the previous five-year period dropped to 540 tons. So it is naive to believe that in the remaining two years a miracle will happen." According to Maharramov, all this is the result of unprofessional approach to the preparation of such programs, when do not take into account the specifics of different agricultural crops.

"Suppose grapes fruit in 4-5 years and tea fruits even in 8-10 years. Given the trend growth of cultivated tea, it can be assumed that, even in 2019, tea production may reach a maximum of 750-800 tons. But there is a purely operational problem hindering the growth of this sector. Due to the low security of sector fertilizers, including organic ones, tea growing is not developed intensely," said Maharramov.

According to the chairman of the Center for Economic and Social Development Vugar Bayramli, creation of regional and city administrations of the Ministry of Agriculture can have positive and negative points. On the one hand there is a need to establish direct contact between farmers and the Ministry, as there is no transparency in the field of agricultural subsidies, there is no production planning. But on the other hand, there is the possibility of forming another bureaucratic system. "What the result will be, time will tell," said Bayramly. -15A-