Uzbekistan reduced the area sown to cotton

Almaty. May 4. Silkroadnews – This year, according to the program for further reform and development of agriculture, Uzbekistan has reduced the area sown to cotton by 30.5 thousand hectares, Trend reports.

According to the Ministry of Economy and the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, taking into account the area released, the major planting acreage will be used for planting vegetables (172,6 thousand hectares), potatoes (86.3 thousand hectares), melons (26,3 thousand hectares). 5.2 thousand hectares are used to new gardens, gardens reconstruction has been carried out on 5.7 thousand hectares, vineyards have also been reconstructed on the area of 3.2 thousand hectares, in addition, the area of 163 hectares was used to build 4264 greenhouses and install 16 new cold stores for storage of 10.5 thousand tons of fruits and vegetables.

“As a result, in the first quarter of this year we produced 53.1 thousand tons of vegetables (10.6% growth compared to the same period of 2015). Taking into account the carry-overs, since the beginning of the year we have exported 95.1 thousand tons of fruits and vegetables,” the statement says.

In addition, since the beginning of the year Uzbekistan has implemented 664 projects to growth the number of cattle and volume of products by the poultry farming, fish farming, bee-keeping. As a result, in the first quarter of this year the total number of cattle in the country has reached more than 11.5 million heads (5.8% growth compared to the same period of 2015); also 425.8 thousand tons of meat (+6.1%), 12.7 thousand tons of fish (+10%), 1.59 million tons of milk (+6.4%), 1180.4 million eggs (+6.7%) were produced.

Till 2020 Uzbekistan intends to reduce the volume of raw cotton production and procurement from 3.35 to 3 million tons.

The acreage optimization and introduction of modern agricultural technologies by 2020 shall provide an increase in the production cereal crops to 8.5 million tons with 16.4% growth, production of potatoes is expected to grow by 35%, other vegetables – by 30%, fruits and grapes – by 21.5%, meat – by 26.2%, milk – by 47.3%, eggs – by 74.5%, fish – in two and a half times.

In 2015, according to the Uzbek State Statistics Committee, the total acreage of crops in farms of all categories amounted to 3.695 million hectares.

Cotton was sown on an area of 1.298 million hectares.