BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.12
By Asif Mehman - Trend:
Azerbaijan’s Agriculture Minister Inam Karimov visited Barda, Tartar and Fizuli districts where he examined the local arable lands and orchards, Trend reports referring to the ministry.
As a part of the visits, Karimov got familiarized with the progress of construction works at a factory for drying silkworm cocoons, being built in the Barda district in accordance with Azerbaijan president’s order dated January 15, 2019. It was noted that after the commissioning of the enterprise with a total area of 1.2 hectares, it will be possible to receive and dry a total of 200 tons of raw cocoon.
Then the minister visited the farmer Nijat Mammadov’s cotton field in the Arablar village, Barda district. Karimov pointed out that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has declared the development of the agricultural sector a priority.
Noting that a dry summer is observed in Azerbaijan this year, Karimov said that specific and serious tasks have been set for the efficient use of water resources.
“Global warming remains a serious problem for all countries. Therefore, efficient use of water resources is one of the main challenges for the future,” he emphasized. “At the meeting chaired by the head of state, it was repeatedly noted that the introduction of modern irrigation technologies is important for the efficient use of water resources.”
“At present, the use of innovations in the irrigation process has expanded in Azerbaijan. The most common of these are drip irrigation systems. Hundreds of farms, especially those with perennial crops, are now using drip irrigation systems. This method allows for efficient use of water resources and also increases yields,” the minister added.
“For this reason, the state has included irrigation systems in the list of agricultural machinery, to which a 40-percent discount is applied,” Karimov noted. “We call on our farmers to use the opportunities created by the state and use modern irrigation systems at their farms. Thus, they will achieve an increase in productivity and will economically use water resources.”
Afterwards, the minister met with Ikram Ziyadov, the winner of the Farmer of the Month competition, announced for the first time among farmers in order to further stimulate the agricultural sector in Azerbaijan.
According to Karimov, the main goals of the competition is to identify exemplary farmers and to create a healthy competitive environment among farmers.
Ziyadov, who has been farming grain in the Barda district for many years, said that as a result of proper agrotechnical care, he received an average of 54 centners of wheat and 45 centners of barley per hectare. He was awarded a special diploma.
During the visit to Barda district, the minister also was familiarized with the intensive cherry orchard of the farmer Ildyrym Malikov in the Arablar village, and the corn field of the farmer Etibar Dzhumshudov in the Zumurkhan village.
Then Karimov left for Tartar district where he visited a cotton field planted according to the Greek technology on the territory of a pilot experimental station and got acquainted with the progress of construction of the administrative building and warehouses of the station.
Further, he visited Fizuli district and examined the construction of the local enterprise for drying cocoons.