Reason for Low Cotton Yield Found?

Baku / 27.03.18 / Turan: The alternation of crops, in this case cotton and cereals, increase and restoration of soil fertility were discussed at the republican meeting on the development of cotton growing in Barda, where President Ilham Aliyev stated the need to seriously analyze the miscalculations and shortcomings, since henceforth the development of cotton growing should occur solely by an increase in yields.

In general, despite a six-fold increase in yields over two years, the collection of "white gold" did not meet expectations. As it turned out, the highest yield per hectare of fields did not exceed 27 quintals per hectare in the Terter region, 26.3 quintals in Barda, 21.8 in Bilasuvar, 21.5 in Agjabedi, 20.6 in Agdam, and 20 in Jalilabad. In other areas, the yield was below 20 and even 10 quintals per hectare.

Meanwhile, as the agriculture expert Vaheed Maharramov said, despite large financial injections, only 207 thousand tons of harvest (15.1 quintals per hectare) was harvested from 136.4 thousand hectares of cotton fields last year. At the same time, with the beginning of the cotton campaign of the government in 2016, 179 expensive harvesters were imported, and by 2017 the amount of expensive equipment increased 13 times, to 268 units. In addition, the work attracted 200 thousand budget employees.

Farmers suffered significant losses, as processing companies bought crops at a low price - 50 gapiks per kilogram, and yields were low. "On average, 1,510 kg was collected from a hectare of cotton fields and farmers' expenses averaged 830 manat per hectare. The workers earned 10-13 gapiks per kilogram of cotton. According to our calculations, many cotton growers not only did not earn, but suffered losses. The loss of farms averaged 75 manat per hectare - 10 million manat in the country. The work of 200 thousand villagers was to the benefit of two major government officials," said the expert.

It should be assumed that the republican meeting in Barda will start a new campaign now under the motto of transition to intensive ways of development of the industry.

Meanwhile, according to the agricultural expert Fuad Alizadeh, as a result of the alternation of crops, favorable conditions for plant growth are not simply created, but the efficiency of many agro-technical measures carried out in the crop rotation is significantly improved, but this approach has not been applied.

"Most of the land has been divided between farmers - these sites are an average of 6 hectares. It is clear that the use of crop rotation in small farms was costly, since such an approach is justified in the conditions of large economic entities," the expert said, noting that local farmers did not apply crop rotation methods, and agricultural practices were violated, which was strictly observed during the Soviet Union.

As it turned out, the need for crop rotation is caused by the fact that when growing the same crop for a long time the soil becomes scanty. In the case of cotton crops, if you divide 6 hectares of field into four parts, one part must necessarily be sown with a different crop - it is a question of cereals or alfalfa, for example, forage alfalfa enriches the soil with nitrogen necessary for growing cotton. The absence of crop rotation leads to impoverishment of soils and a decrease in the yield of cotton.

More extensive grounds represent the possibilities of developing a crop rotation by alternating crops of cotton with alfalfa and grain.

"Crops of alfalfa and cotton are alternated. As an option, there are two years for grain, and then two for cotton, or two years for alfalfa, and then cotton again. Thus, the development of crop production and animal husbandry is achieved, along with high yields of cotton," Alizadeh explained.

The absence of crop rotation in cotton fields is fraught with excessive salinization of soils and a fall in yield. The development of crop rotation involves alternating crops by dividing the field where, as a rule, 60% of the field is allocated for cotton planting, and 40% for cereals and forage crops.

Returning to the history of the problem, the productivity per hectare of cotton was planned to rise from 20 quintals in 2016 to 30-35 and even 40 quintals by the past year, but expectations were not met, and the reasons for the low yield of this technical crop began to be clarified. To increase the collection of cotton there is also considered the need for supplies of equipment, irrigation works, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, etc. Meanwhile, the measures announced were already planned two years ago, agrarians recall. -0-