Agriculture in Azerbaijan (January-August 2014)

The Azerbaijani government increased the amount of subsidies for agricultural producers. The validity is five years.

According to the changes in the rules for issuing subsidies and assisting agricultural producers at the expense of the state budget, from now on around 70 percent of the cost will be covered at the expense of subsidies when physical and legal entities buy fertilizers compared to the previous 50 percent.

The cost of purchase, which is subject to the subsidies, begins from 80 AZN compared to the previous 50 AZN. In this case, the maximum limit of subsidizing 300 kilograms of fertilizers will be canceled.

The amount of the subsidies for the purchase of motor oil and fuel remains unchanged - 40 AZN per hectare of a cultivated area.

Agricultural producers have been provided with subsidies in Azerbaijan since 2007.

Farmers are exempt from payment of all taxes (except a land tax) in Azerbaijan in accordance with the law on "Providing agricultural producers with tax incentives" dated November 27, 2001.

According to the report of the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, the agricultural production volume amounted to 3.622 million AZN in Azerbaijan at current prices in January-August 2014 or by 3.7 percent less compared to the same period of last year.

According to the report, the livestock production increased by 2.8 percent, crop production reduced by 9.2 percent during this period.

Drought in Azerbaijan caused damage to some agricultural products. Grain yield has reduced due to the drought this year. This year the drought has destroyed grain crops in Sheki, Shamakhi and Gobustan. A lack of watering systems also negatively affects the growth of fruits and vegetables.

As of September 1, 2014, harvest was collected on a ​​1,144,500 hectare area in Azerbaijan.

Around 967,200 hectares of this volume of cultivated areas accounted for cereals and legumes (96.7 percent of the total sown area under this crop), 1,100 hectares - tobacco, 22,900 hectares - Cotton, 48,600 hectares (78.7 percent) - potatoes, 68,300 hectares (89.9 percent) - vegetables, 27,300 hectares (97.5 percent) - melons, as well as 9,100 hectares - under the feeding sunflower (78.2 percent).

In particular, during the reporting period, the country produced 2,177 tons of grain (excluding maize). On average, 22.8 centners of grain were gathered from 1 hectare of a cultivated area.

Taking into account the collected corn, a grain production volume amounted to 2.238 million tons in January-August 2014.

The farms produced 980,600 tons of vegetables, 651,900 tons of potatoes, 410,400 tons of melons, 343,500 tons of fruits and berries, 37,100 tons of grapes, 316.7 tons of tea leaves, 17,000 tons of feeding sunflower and 1,900 tons of tobacco leaves.

The production of grape increased by 16.3 percent, feeding sunflower - by 7.5 percent, melons - 3.1 percent, fruits and berries - by 0.9 percent, the production of tea leaves decreased by 20.7 percent, tobacco - by 14.6 percent, potatoes - by 11.5 percent and vegetable production - by 0.8 percent compared to the same period of last year.

Source: Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee

Some 294,900 tons of meat in live weight,1,249 tons of milk, 1.018 million chicken eggs, 15.7 tons of wool were produced in the country during this period.

Meat production increased by 1.5 percent, milk - by 3.2 percent, eggs - by 11.3 percent, wool - 2.2 percent in the country in January-August compared to the same period of 2013.