Baku, Azerbaijan, June 6
Trend:
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Committee for Land Resources and Land Gadgets in the next three years to transfer 281,000 hectares of to-be re-cultivated land to investors through a public-private partnership (PPP), Trend reports with reference to the official website of the President of Uzbekistan.
On these lands it is planned to grow export-oriented fruits and vegetables and also create new grades of cultures, steady against drought. The land users will be able to put crops themselves on developed soil, sublet land and build the necessary infrastructure.
According to the report, as a result of insufficient attention to irrigation systems and unattended attitudes to lands over the past 30 years, 450,000 hectares of irrigated land turned out to be unsuitable for cultivation.
Mirziyoyev approved the World Bank’s proposal for the implementation of a model for the rehabilitation of unused land that, on the basis of PPP in a particular region of the country, and gave the heads of the relevant ministries guidance on the implementation of this project.
The Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan, Jamshid Khodjaev, in turn, stressed the need to create favorable conditions for investors.
According to him, first of all, it is necessary to ensure the food security of the country. Secondly, the most important thing is to increase by several times the export potential, the export of agricultural products.
"To attract private investors, the right regulatory environment must be created," he said.
“In this partnership, we will attract private funds, including funds from international financial institutions, for the development of new lands, we will create a legal framework for leases and subleases. Mastering new lands means more exports, more products, new technologies,” said Khojaev.