Agriculture Ministry Holds Meeting in Best Traditions of Soviet Times

Today the Ministry of Agriculture is organizing an all-republican meeting on "excellent, timely and accurate performance of agricultural activities on the areas intended for planting cotton" in the Sabirabad region.

As Turan was told in the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture, this year's crop of cotton is expected to come from 120 thousand hectares in 27 districts of the country. It is about 70 thousand hectares more than in 2016.

Last year, Azerbaijan gathered 87.2 thousand tons of cotton, up to 50,000 tons more than in 2015.

The government considers the development of cotton growing as one of the employment opportunities in rural areas, as well as foreign exchange earnings due to the sale in the form of raw materials and processing of cotton products. This year the state budget will be allocated 300 million manat to support the production of cotton – for the implementation of reclamation work, procurement of cotton harvesters, etc.

In 2016 the government abolished subsidies for cotton seeds in the amount of 90 manat. A specific subsidy has been established - 10 gepiks for each kg of raw cotton given to a ginnery. ---08D