YEAR OF BREAD

Grain is the basis of food security in any country - a symbol of prosperity and self-sufficiency. For this reason, every summer when the grain harvest begins, attention to the situation in rural areas is doubled, and everyone anticipates strong performance. This year everything is running its course and the figures suggest that in the new season, Azerbaijan should not face any problem in providing the population with such a staple product as bread.

So, the harvest of the main crops - barley and wheat - has ended at private farms in 10 economic regions of Azerbaijan. The tense days of the summer harvest are now over. Taking advantage of favourable weather during this period, farmers harvested and sold about 2.5 million tonnes of grain. This is 0.5 million tonnes more than last year. Although farmers failed to reach the record 2.99 million tonnes produced in 2009, they promise that in 2012, they will achieve even greater growth rates.

We have to say that, according to Azerbaijan's Ministry of Agriculture, the area of wheat crops decreased over the year by 0.5 per cent - to 654,197 hectares. "As of 8 August, wheat was sown to an area of 651,551 hectares, whereas last year, work was carried out to an area of 655,381 hectares," the Ministry of Agriculture said.

But, in spite of this, wheat production increased by 25.3 per cent, compared with a year earlier. As of early August, the country had harvested more than 1.6 million tonnes of wheat. On average, 25.1 quintals of wheat were collected from each hectare of land. Last year, the figure was 19.9 quintals per hectare.

The undoubted champions of the new harvest were farmers from Saki District. They handed over a record amount of grain to elevators and granaries - almost 240,000 tonnes grown on more than 71,270 hectares. The yield in this district rose to more than 33 tons per hectare.

The need of Azerbaijan's population and economy for grain is currently about 3-3.2 million tonnes. The shortfall, as before, will be imported from other countries. The main suppliers of grain to Azerbaijan, in particular, are the Southern Federal District of Russia - Stavropol and Krasnodar, as well as Kazakhstan. Thus, according to Agriculture Minister Ismat Abbasov, although grain production in Azerbaijan fell due to bad weather a year ago, there was no shortage of grain in the country. "Azerbaijan's need for grain and all types of agricultural produce will be fully met this year too," the minister promised.

Meanwhile, the head of the department to oversee the production and processing of crops at the Ministry of Agriculture, Sabir Valiyev, previously reported that last year Azerbaijan imported 1.4 million tonnes of grain. Of this amount, 1 million tonnes were not used and remained for this year. "This year there is no shortage of grain, and we have last year's reserves," Valiyev said.

Plus, there are imports which the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan says rose by 19.14 per cent - to $137.986 million - in the first half of 2011. In January-June 2011, Azerbaijan imported flour worth $48.692 million, an increase of 83.1 per cent over the same period last year.

The growth in imports of grain and flour in Azerbaijan in the first half-year is linked to the continuing VAT exemption on imports of these products. Under a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, these exemptions were abolished on 10 July. But this happened against the background of growing domestic production, so this decision should not have much influence on wheat prices this year.

This season's grain has been gathered in. However, according to the state programme for the reliable provision of food products in 2008-2015, grain production in the country should be brought up to 2.8 million tonnes per year, the areas sown to crops to 900 hectares and the yield to 32 quintals per hectare. What is the situation in achieving these objectives?

It has been impossible so far to increase the grain yield to the target level. The problem is being dealt with at the highest level - on the orders of President Ilham Aliyev, farmers have been allocated 180,000 hectares of new land for agricultural complexes to grow seed grain. We can, therefore, predict that starting from next year, not only the volume of soft and durum wheat production, but also their productivity will increase.

This is also the assumption of the Ministry of Agriculture. The ministry noted that the main emphasis is on high quality products that have baking properties. According to the head of the department to oversee the production and processing of crops, Sabir Valiyev, next year will see an increase of approximately 50,000 tonnes in the production of bread and bakery products in comparison with the current level. "The thing is that next year will see an increase in the production of seed grain. Land has been allocated for agricultural systems where new areas of seed grain will be established already in autumn. We will meet the needs of all farmers and export the surplus," he said.

Grain prices definitely affect the overall picture of agricultural production in the country and are a major incentive for other parts of the agrarian sector. And the data collected on other crops sits well against the backdrop of favourable data from the grain fields.

As previously predicted by the minister of agriculture, 2011 is expected to see an increase of 6 per cent in the production of all major types of agricultural produce in Azerbaijan, compared to last year. And even in this connection, Abbasov once again mentioned the need to create organizations for the storage of food stocks in the country, which encourages farmers to maintain their position in subsequent years. "In Azerbaijan, there is no shortage of any of the types of agricultural produce. And our task is to ensure that all needs of the population for agricultural produce are met by local production. This problem will be solved within the next few years," Abbasov said. Given the incessant warnings from various international agencies about the growing scale of the problem of food supplies to the world population as a whole, it is more than good news.