Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 26 / Trend A. Akhundov /
The Azerbaijani Agriculture Ministry predicts an increase in cereal production by 100,000 tons in 2012, head of department for production and processing of plant products under the ministry Sabir Veliyev told Trend today.
"Planting work has been completed," he said. "Sown area increased by 40,000 hectares. This allows predicting the growth of grain production. In 2012, we plan to gather up to 2.55 million tons of grain crops."
According to the State Statistics Committee, Azerbaijan produced 2.459 billion tons of grain in 2011 (22 percent or 458 tons more than in 2010) with a yield of 25.4 quintals per hectare. About 66.7 percent or 1.64 million tons fell to wheat.
About 1,040 hectares of land were plowed for the autumn crop. About 93.1 percent of these areas - 968,200 hectares were sown. About 689,100 hectares were planted with wheat (an increase of 4.3 percent compared to the previous year), 267,300 - barley (an increase of 4.9 percent), 11,800 hectares - green fodder. In general, the grain area in Azerbaijan increased by 4.5 percent per year.
Today, the country's needs in cereals are estimated at 3-3.2 million tons.
"Kazakhstan and Russia will remain grain exporters to Azerbaijan in 2012," Veliyev said.