Teachers, Pupils and Doctors Forcibly Involved in Harvesting

Baku / 23.10.18 / Turan: In the eight months of this year, Azerbaijan exported about 37,000 tons of cotton fiber abroad, which is 2.1 times more than the same period last year.

"Success" in cotton exports is characterized by low profitability of production, experts reported. The media published information about several mass poisoning of cotton growers caused by illiterate use of pesticides. Farmers and cotton pickers are dissatisfied with low wages and the violent involvement of non-farmers in lowland areas in harvesting raw materials. At the same time, the revenues of cotton companies are four times higher than the profits of direct producers - farmers.

From the Sabirabad district, they report the forced involvement of education workers in cotton harvesting. In the village of Birinji Shahsevan, in the territory of secondary school N1 named after G. Asadov they have created a cotton plantation, which forced students and teachers to work. The school principal distracts teachers and students from the educational process, and working on a school plantation leads to chemical reagents poisoning. No material compensation for forced labor is reported.

A newly appointed representative of the local executive in the village of Uladzhaly in the Sabirabad region Mehman Jafarov gathered local peasants on October 21 in order to compel them to engage only in cotton. He forced the peasants to sign cotton sowing agreements. Jafarov announced his intention to force the teachers of the rural school to sign such a contract. Planting other crops in this village is now prohibited. Jafarov threatened that the crops of wheat, watermelons and other crops will be destroyed by a tractor, residents of the region told Turan.

In the Javad village of the same area, this year's cotton yield is significantly lower than last year"s figures, said a local farmer, who refused to give a name. For the delivery of a kilogram of cotton collected by manual labor, the peasants are paid only 15 gapik.

"Productivity is low, and at such a price we work at a loss," said a farmer from a village in which residents cannot find jobs, and their standard of living falls every year. They are forced to agree to work for a fixed price. In this village, employees of the education system are also forcibly involved in cotton production.

Tense labor relations were established at the cotton factory in Sabirabad, where tractor drivers refused to go to work, having learned that the director had canceled the issuance of free lunches on the pretext of increased costs for the enterprise. After the pressure exerted on the tractor drivers, they stopped the protest and returned to work.

In the neighboring Beylagan district there is no one to harvest the cotton crop, so the raw materials remain in the fields and deteriorate. It is unprofitable for the peasants to carry out hard work because of the low fixed price for picking cotton - a maximum of 15 gapik per kilogram of raw material delivered.

In the Salyan district, local authorities force technical staff from medical and educational institutions to pick cotton, as there are not enough cotton harvesters in the district. On the other hand, cotton harvested by machines is accepted at a low price due to soiling, so farmers prefer to resort to manual labor. -0-