NEW TREND

The next stage of reforms is being implemented in the agricultural sector of the country, aimed at improving the efficiency of production and logistics. The first step in this direction was last year's initiative of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev who approved a number of documents on the modernization of the system of control and formation of new production trends in the agricultural industry. Earlier this year, the head of state ordered that 2015 be declared the Year of Agriculture and approved the Action Plan within the framework of the agricultural year.

The list of activities planned for this year is divided into five basic areas, the most important of which covers the aspects of support for agricultural producers. The most significant initiatives of this area provide for support to specialized forage-producing farms and agroparks as well as the formation of large logistics centres meant for export, "green" markets and new food fairs.

By the way, these areas are already being actively developed in our country. For example, the foundation of the first agropark - the Samkir Agropark production and mediation company - was laid in November last year. In the course of the next year or two, it is planned to implement a number of similar projects for organizing combined forms of agricultural production and the wholesale marketing of products in several regions of the country. The formation of agroparks involves the creation of modern agricultural hubs arranged as a logistics area with vegetable stores and warehouses, processing facilities, food processing and packaging factories, and shops for fodder production or organic fertilizer processing. The development of production in agroparks will significantly expand the share of processed and packaged products in foreign trade.

The setting-up of large logistics bases in the country should be the next step in increasing agricultural exports. Thus, the construction of three transhipment centres designed to process 110,000 metric tons of agricultural products is nearing its completion on the Abseron peninsula. At the end of December last year, the country's first food logistics centre Meyveli opened in Qaradag District of Baku, which specializes in wholesale and export of fruit and vegetables. It is noteworthy that such logistics centres are being established in the neighbouring countries too. In particular, an agro-logistics complex was opened in the Kazakh port of Aktau with the support of the Azerbaijan Foundation for Promotion of Export and Investment (AZPROMO) and private investors. Similar complexes are planned to be set up in a number of Russian cities and in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk.

In addition to optimizing traffic flows, the formation of large agricultural logistics centres inside and outside the country would also allow for organizing promotion of the country's agricultural potential abroad. Such distribution centres will help processing enterprises of the country to move from one-off trading operations to export deliveries under long-term contracts.

The second most important basic area of the plan seeks to strengthen the agricultural potential of the country. This segment includes measures to provide for the activities of the seed bank and the development of large specialized grain farms, which is associated with the creation of the State Seed Stock to meet the needs of rural producers in elite, high-yielding and drought-resistant seeds. This structure will be vested with the responsibility to ensure procurement, storage and distribution of sowing seed grains among the producers. In this regard, the Cabinet was instructed to allocate 10m manats to the Ministry of Agriculture for the operation of the seed bank. The necessity to establish such a structure as soon as possible is due to the need to overcome a long-standing problem facing small farm enterprises of the country. Many farmers still use conventional seeds for sowing because they are cheap. However, this factor, as well as inadequate use of fertilizers, non-compliance with a number of planned agro-technical measures, etc., collectively lead to the fact that the average yield of the country's grain area remains at about 25 metric centners per hectare in recent years. For comparison: the average yield in neighbouring Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine rarely drops below 35-40 metric centners per hectare.

The formation of the seed stock will significantly reduce the cost of farmers' access to elite grain. Actually, it is for this purpose that large specialized agricultural complexes tailored for the production of elite varieties of wheat seeds are being created in the country.

The first specialized farms were formed on the territory of Beylagan and Agcabadi Districts about three years ago, another agricultural complex was commissioned in Imisli District. On the whole, work is now being carried out in the regions to set up 19 large farms which will have over 30,000 hectares of land at their disposal. More than 47m manats was allocated from government funds to form the infrastructure of about 15 of the above business entities.

According to forecasts of the Ministry of Agriculture, the commissioning of nearly 20 specialized grain-growing agricultural complexes will make it possible to fully supply local farmers with cheap seeding material and bring the annual production of grain to 3-3.5m metric tons, which will allow the country to cease grain import altogether.

A number of items included in the list are related to the development of the irrigation system. In particular, we are talking about continuing the construction of the Tovuzcay reservoir and extending the canal system of the Samkircay reservoir. This year, measures should be taken to deliver irrigation waters of the Samur-Abseron canal to farmland in Xizi, Siyazan and Sabran Districts. Another set of measures are designed for the development of the irrigation and drainage system in Yevlax, Agdas, Qazax, Agstafa and Tovuz Districts.

A separate block of issues presented in the Action Plan for the Year of Agriculture comprises activities that involve the across-the-board introduction of information technologies and the formation of e-Agriculture. "The introduction of e-Agriculture will solve many long-standing problems of the industry. This is certainly a large-scale project, the full implementation of which will take a considerable period of time. Therefore, to accelerate these processes, the agricultural department carries out monitoring and implements other measures to optimize the available information on farms and developed lands," Minister of Agriculture Heydar Asadov said not so long ago. The compilation of such an electronic database will help provide subsidies depending on the actual amount of work carried out on the farms and record the exact parameters of land plots used in agriculture. "With the introduction of e-Agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture will be able to ensure absolute transparency of the subsidy distribution system," Asadov said.

At present, the Ministry of Agriculture has ensured a digital recording of nearly 5,000 farming enterprises and other entities involved in livestock breeding, which are subject to state veterinary supervision.

It is expected that electronic document management will accelerate the process of information processing many times over and facilitate the mobilization of the state's administrative and financial resources for the industry. Above all, it will allow for the most comprehensive and transparent monitoring of the financial activities of OJSC "Agroleasing" as well as veterinary, phytosanitary and other public service departments.

The strategy of economic development of Azerbaijan until 2020 provides for bringing agriculture to a totally new level, ensuring the maximum degree of domestic food security and increased export potential. The approved Action Plan for 2015 serves exactly these goals.