Details added (first version posted on 15:48)
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26
Trend:
Today, Azerbaijan is a leading country in the world in terms of development pace of cotton-growing, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said.
He made the remarks addressing a republican conference on development of cotton-growing in Barda District on March 26.
The head of state spoke about the great benefits of cotton-growing for the country’s economy.
He noted that cotton-growing primarily means employment, it brings currency to the country, develops the non-oil sector, non-oil industry. It gives momentum to local production, creates jobs not only in the districts involved in cotton-growing, but also in other districts, added the head of state.
“Today, Azerbaijan is a leading country in the world in terms of development pace of cotton-growing. I do not believe that there is a second country in the world that could increase cotton harvest by more than six times within two years. We have achieved this through targeted measures,” the president noted.
“I would like to once again say that if the state support was not provided to cotton-growing, we would not have achieved this: 35,000 tons would have been harvested in 2015, and perhaps 20,000 tons would have been harvested this year and maybe not. Thus, cotton-growing would have completely disappeared. We did not allow this. We have saved, restored, and will revive cotton-growing. We will hear information about the work done, and also we will talk about the forthcoming work at today’s conference. I should note that our main task will be the productivity increase in the following years, because the experience of past years shows that there is a lot of progress,” the head of state said.
“In 2016, about 90,000 tons of cotton were harvested, and 207,000 tons – in the previous year. Despite the fact that the crop was harvested in big volumes, the productivity per hectare is not at the proper level. It is at a very good level – more than 26 quintals – in Barda District. However, the productivity is very small in some districts,” he noted.
The reasons for this are analyzed and should be analyzed in order to prevent the shortcomings in the future, and to reach even higher productivity, President Aliyev added.