BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 13
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
Significant growth in the industrial and manufacturing sectors was observed in the Azerbaijani non-oil sector from January through September 2019, a source in the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture told Trend.
“The growth in the agricultural sector exceeded seven percent during the reporting period,” the source said.
“In particular, an increase in cotton productivity was observed in the agricultural sector,” the source said. “During the cotton harvesting, the yield reached 27 centners per hectare from January through September 2019, while this figure was 17 centners per hectare for the reporting period of last year.”
The area sown with cotton decreased from 132,000 hectares to 100,000 hectares in 2019 compared to last year due to the wrong choice of land plots in some places.
However, productivity has increased. Some 233,000 tons of cotton were harvested from 133,000 hectares in 2018 while this year, more than 270,000 tons of cotton were harvested from 100,000 hectares.
A positive trend is in other fields of the agricultural sector. For example, grain production yield has reached 32 centners per hectare; positive indicators are also observed in the production of fruits and hazelnuts.
As of 2018, the total volume of agricultural production in monetary terms exceeded seven billion manat ($4 billion). In comparable prices, this figure is 4.6 percent more than industrial achievements in the previous year.
At the same time, the share of livestock in agricultural products for the year amounted to 54.6 percent that is 3.8 billion manat ($2.2 billion) while crop production - 45.4 percent that is 3.2 billion manat ($1.9 billion). The growth was observed in both of these spheres of one of the most important sectors of the economy.
The livestock farmers increased production by an average of 2.7 percent for the year, while 6.8-percent-growth was achieved in crop production.
In accordance with the World Bank’s (WB) report on Europe and Central Asia, the average annual growth of the Azerbaijani agricultural sector will reach 4.6 percent from 2019 through 2021.