BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 5
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Uzbekistan’s Uztextile Association held a seminar, where summed up the results of 2019 and set new tasks for 2020, Trend reports citing Uzbek media.
Over the past 2 years, the amount of land allocated to cotton-growing textile clusters amounted to 68 percent of agricultural land.
This year, 75 cotton clusters were created in 118 districts of Uzbekistan. Over 2.6 million tons (100 percent of the forecast), or more than 70 percent of the total cotton crop, were harvested on 701,000 hectares.
Moreover, as emphasized, 95,300 tons (5.1 percent) were harvested using over 180 modern cotton harvesters.
Representatives of cotton-textile clusters paid special attention to the current global water shortage. This year, drip irrigation technology was introduced on 9,000 hectares of cotton fields.
In particular, thanks to drip irrigation technologies by Israeli company Netafim, Chinese Qingdao Flourish Textile Machinery CO LTD and many other local companies, in some places the yield was increased up to 60 percent.
Furthermore, in Uzbekistan, first organic cotton was grown. Uzbekistan’s Academy of Sciences was able to grow this category of cotton together with Textile Technologies Group, without chemicals. The organic cotton was certified by a European certification company.
Priorities for the coming year cover the proper distribution of cotton on agricultural fields, the provision of high-quality seeds, and the balanced distribution of irrigation, land reclamation, and water supply systems. Another important task was the gradual mechanization of cotton picking by 2020.
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