Turkmenistan launched the cotton sowing campaign, an important agricultural season, on Wednesday. The farmers will plant cotton on nearly 620 thousand-hectare land this year. Last year, farmers planted the crop on 550 thousand hectares of land.
Farmers in the country’s Ahal, Balkan, Lebap and Mary velayats started cotton sowing and the farmers in Dashoguz velayat will start planting on March 29.
Turkmen farmers, which harvested 1.05 million tons of cotton last year, expect to harvest 1.25 million tons of cotton this year, particularly 280 thousand tons in Ahal, 10 thousand tons in Balkan, 275 thousand tons in Dashoguz, 320 thousand tons in Lebap and 365 thousand tons in Mary.
Private farmers who have received agricultural land plots from a special land fund will also plant cotton. They have harvested cotton from 25.5 thousand-hectare land last year.
More than 7,600 tractors, 1,700 planters, 5 thousand cultivars and other agricultural machinery to ensure uninterrupted sowing of cotton will be used this season.
The cotton sowing season will also involve 375 biolaboratories, which will provide farmers with environmentally friendly and economically beneficial biological products used against cotton pests.
Cotton cultivation is one of the leading sectors of the domestic agricultural sector, which provides significant contribution to the implementation of state programs in the field of import substitution and increasing the country's export potential.
