BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Uzbekistan’s Cabinet of Ministers approved a regulation on the procedure for providing state support for agricultural mechanization, Trend reports citing Uzbekistan’s Norma informative legal portal.
As noted in the document, subsidies are funds allocated to reimburse the buyer for expenses in the amount of 15 percent of the cost of new agricultural equipment produced by domestic agricultural engineering organizations with a localization level of at least 20 percent.
It also follows from the document that agricultural equipment manufacturers will be paid compensation - money allocated to reimburse 80 percent of the costs of transporting combines to provide services abroad (export of services).
The allocation of subsidies, as well as the payment of compensations, is provided for from the state budget, as noted in the resolution.
According to official estimates, at present, Uzbekistan’s agriculture needs more than 11,000 units of equipment, including 4,000 tractors, 500 combines and more than 5,000 suspended-trailer equipment annually. In addition, this demand will increase even more, taking into account the planned reclamation of 263,000 hectares of land by 2022 and more than 1 million hectares by 2025.
Today, 46 percent of the equipment has exceeded its expected life or is worn out, while 97 percent of the equipment at the disposal of the farmers is intended for cotton and grain growing.
As noted in the Concept for the Further Development of Agricultural Engineering of Uzbekistan until 2025, 17 enterprises operate in the agricultural engineering industry, employing more than 2,500 people. Over the past 5 years, the production capacity of industry enterprises has more than doubled. If in 2014 12,500 units of equipment were produced, then in 2018 production increased to 25,000 units. As for the level of capacity utilization, it is 30-82 percent depending on the types of equipment.
In 2018, 1,400 units of equipment worth $10.6 million were exported, and worth $90 million were imported.
The average level of agricultural mechanization in cotton growing and grain growing is 88 percent, livestock breeding is 48 percent, vegetable growing is 42 percent and horticulture is 26 percent.
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