Expert: "Money Not Panacea for Development of Agriculture"

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) at the 48^th annual meeting in Baku approved the allocation of $ 120 million to three local financial institutions.

Two of them are with foreign capital (CJSC Access Bank and non-bank credit organization Finca Azerbaijan) plus JSC Demir Bank. The goal is crediting and concessional financing of agriculture - micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Since the beginning of 2005, for the development of agriculture ADB has allocated approximately $ 215 million.

As the expert for the non-governmental Center for Economic Research Vahid Maharramov told Turan, the money has not actually revived the local agriculture and the amount of loans does not reflect the actual results of the local economy, especially given the fact that every year the government subsidizes farmers for a total amount of 110 million manat.

Since 2003, money is usually allocated to big businessmen tied to high-ranking officials - up to 10 million each, justifying it by the necessity of consolidation of farms. But it is precisely in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises that the largest number of employees in this segment is concentrated, which judges the level of development of the country.

Previously Access Bank loans faced queues in the same Jalilabad region, as the people wished to cultivate potatoes. But lack of free access to markets and low purchasing prices recaptured the interests of producers. "Problems need to be addressed comprehensively - timely supply of quality seeds, fertilizers, logistics centers, warehouses, personnel issues, and other harvesting equipment, educational work. All this must be interconnected and calculated not on the profit of officials or oligarchs, but on the benefit of small and medium producers," he said. --17D