According to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, agricultural output at current prices amounted to 4.308 billion AZN in Azerbaijan in January-September, decreasing by 3.7 percent compared to the same period of 2013.
According to the report, livestock production increased by three percent, crop production decreased by 9 percent for the period.
According to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, as of October 1, the crop was collected from 1.183 million hectares of area.
Around 985,200 hectares of this area accounted for cereals and legumes (99.1 percent of the total area sown with this crop), 1,100 hectares - tobacco, 22,900 hectares - cotton, 61,000 hectares (98.9 percent) - potatoes, 74,300 hectares (97.8 percent) - vegetables, 28,000 hectares - melons, and 11,100 hectares - sunflower forage (95.3 percent).
In particular, around 2,178 tons of grain (excluding maize) were produced during the reporting period. On average, 22.8 quintals of grain was collected from one hectare of sown areas.
The grain production taking into account the collected corn amounted to 2.338 million tons in January-September 2014.
Grain production volumes have decreased in Azerbaijan this year because of the drought, Azerbaijani Minister of Agriculture Heydar Asadov said.
"There were problems with grain crops due to the lack of rain," he said. "In this regard, the republic will import seeds of new varieties of wheat adapted to such conditions. Nearly 10,000 tons of seeds of new varieties of wheat will be delivered this year. The agreements have been signed. We will try to distribute local and foreign varieties from 2015."
Around 1.125 million tons of vegetables, 808,900 tons of potatoes, 439,900 tons of melons, 532,400 tons of fruits and berries, 106,100 tons of grape, 29,100 tons of sugar beet , 404.2 tons of tea leaves, 19,800 tons of sunflower forage and 2,200 tons of tobacco leaves were produced in the farms during this period.
The grape production increased by 1.7 percent, sunflower forage - by 11.8 percent, melons - 2.9 percent, fruits and berries - 0.4 percent, production of tea leaves decreased by 14.8 percent, tobacco - by 16.2 percent, sugar beet - 16 percent, potatoes - by 17.8 percent and vegetables - by 1.1 percent compared to the same period of last year.
|
Jan.-Sept. 2014 |
Jan.-Sept. 2013 |
||||||
|
Harvested area, thousand hectare |
% |
Gathered crop, thousand tons |
Productivity Quintal /hectare |
Harvested area, thousand hectare |
Gathered crop, thousand tons |
Productivity Quintal /hectare |
|
|
grain (without corn) |
954,7 |
99,1 |
2178,7 |
22,8 |
1034,5 |
2752,1 |
26,6 |
|
corn |
30,5 |
81,7 |
159,5 |
52,4 |
28,8 |
145,5 |
50,5 |
|
sunflower |
11,1 |
95,3 |
19,8 |
17,9 |
9,1 |
17,7 |
19,5 |
|
cotton |
22,9 |
20,4 |
23,5 |
6,8 |
|||
|
Sugar beet |
1,2 |
20,3 |
29,1 |
251 |
1,6 |
34,6 |
219 |
|
tobacco, tons |
1,1 |
2234 |
1,2 |
2667,0 |
|||
|
potato |
61,0 |
98,9 |
808,9 |
133 |
64,7 |
983,8 |
152 |
|
vegetables |
74,3 |
97,8 |
1125,0 |
152 |
75,3 |
1137,8 |
151 |
|
Melons and gourds |
28,0 |
100,0 |
439,9 |
157 |
28,5 |
427,4 |
150 |
|
fruits |
532,4 |
530,1 |
|||||
|
grape |
106,1 |
104,3 |
|||||
|
green tea, tons |
404,2 |
474,5 |
|||||
Source: Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee
The country produced 324,900 tons of meat (live weight), 1.416 million tons of milk, 1.164 billion eggs, 16.3 tons of wool during the reporting period. Meat production increased by 1.5 percent, milk - by 3.6 percent, eggs - by 11.6 percent, wool - 1.5 percent in January-September 2013 compared to the same period of 2013.
Azerbaijan will become a country exporting poultry products in the near future, Azerbaijani Minister of Agriculture Heydar Asadov said.
The minister said that Azerbaijan has begun providing itself with poultry since 2013.
"Huge funds were allocated for the poultry development through the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support under the Ministry of Economy and Industry," the minister said. "Currently, the negotiations on poultry product supply to Russia are underway. According to the calculations of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, the period of reaching these agreements and the launch of new facilities will coincide. This will allow the country to increase the potential in this area and to start exporting poultry products abroad."
Azerbaijan has recently issued preferential loans totaling $108.5 million AZN for the development of the poultry. Around 39 poultry farms are financed by the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support under the Ministry. Their production capacity is 55,000 chicken meat per year, 84 million breeding eggs, 164.5 million of marketable eggs. Around 30 have been already commissioned. The rest farms are being constructed.
As a result of the conducted work, the chicken meat production has increased by more than 1.5 times and reached 97,300 tons, production of chicken meat on an industrial scale by 2.6 times to 55,000 tons per year during the last three years.
The poultry imports to Azerbaijan decreased by 73 percent after the poultry farms were established in the country. Today, the country is self-sufficient in eggs by more than 96 percent.