Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 15
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Some 20-25 percent of Uzbekistan's total export revenues fall to the share of export of agricultural products, the Ministry of Agriculture of Uzbekistan said in a statement.
The ministry said the agriculture is one of the key areas of the economy of Uzbekistan. The land used for agricultural production occupies 45 percent of the country's territory.
Together with water management sector and forestry, this industry employs 3.6 million people, or 27 percent of the employed persons in the country, and provides 18 percent of total GDP.
Over 20 years, the volume of agricultural production has tripled to 24 million tons of fruits and vegetables, including 11.3 million tons of vegetables, 3.1 million tons of fruits, 1.7 million tons of grapes and 2.1 million tons of melons and gourds.
In addition, Uzbekistan has more than 12 million heads of large cattle, more than 20 million heads of small cattle, about 72 million birds, produces more than 2.4 million tons of meat, more than 10 million tons of milk, 37,000 tons of wool and more than 7 billion eggs.
To date, six investment projects are being implemented under the guarantee of the government of Uzbekistan in the total amount of $1.2 billion.
The projects entitled as "Development of the fruit and vegetable sector in Uzbekistan" with additional funding of $ 500 million, "Development of the livestock sector in Uzbekistan" with a total of amount of $150 million and "Program for adaptation to climate change and mitigation of its consequences for the Aral sea basin" are being implemented with the participation of the World Bank.
The projects entitled as "Development of the fruit and vegetable sector in Uzbekistan" in the total amount of $28.24 million and "Development of the value chain in the dairy sector of Uzbekistan" in the total amount of $40.57 million are being implemented together with the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
The Asian Development Bank is also actively involved in the area of increasing food production under the project entitled as "Development of the value chain in the horticulture sector", where the amount of the project with additional funding amounted to $197 million.
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