AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP

Last spring Azerbaijani farmers mainly sowed non-traditional types of crop, with the exception of winter barley and wheat. Landowners today are free to choose what they produce and, depending on demand, villagers even grow crops that used not to be typical of their region.

For example, the sort of tomatoes grown in the village of Zira is today grown widely on farms in Sirvan and Mugan. At the same time, the volume of vegetable production has begun to decrease noticeably in traditional horticultural areas. Vegetable production in Astara District has more than halved. Landowners now use hundreds of hectares that used to be sown to vegetables for other purposes.

"It's not profitable to grow vegetables in our district," farmer Nasir Mammadov says. "We used to grow cucumbers and tomatoes on the state farm land and in our own vegetable plots, but now we have to grow other produce for which there is demand. For example, I prefer to go feed crops for which demand is growing every year. Not only lucerne, but also oats, barley, maize and soya."

Far from all farmers make effective use of their land. Specialists from the Agriculture Ministry say that farmers in Astara District have given several hundred hectares of ploughed land for pasture. "How can arable land be used as private meadows?" puzzled the head of the Agriculture Ministry's department to oversee land use, melioration and environmental protection, Qurbanali Huseynov. "In time this land could become unsuitable and unusable."

At the same time, farmers are justified in re-orienting their sowing. Today practically all the country's farmsteads grow vegetables, while the best sorts of tomatoes and cucumbers are grown in private greenhouses and farms in Abseron District. And it has to be said that they manage pretty well to supply the cities with vegetables both in summer and winter. Greenhouse cultivation has become widespread in Agdas, Goycay, Agsu and other districts in the Aran economic region. But the landowners here often change the sowing pattern.

In the village of Agzibir in Agdas District landowners traditionally grew early vegetables, but last autumn they sowed over 600 hectares of fertile land with promising, productive strains of soft wheat. "This is linked to the shortage of milling wheat," 75-year-old rural businessman Muslim Adilov says. "Life changes, landowners respond to supply and demand in the market. I also chose to grow milling wheat. Our wheat harvest wasn't bad and we have already prepared 15 tonnes of produce for winter."

A spokesman for the executive authorities in Agzibir, Mirza Cafarov, said that the combined income of the villagers is several tens of millions of dollars.

Production of raw cotton is clearly falling in the republic. Farmers in the traditional cotton-growing districts have given up cultivating this cash crop. Cotton sowing has halved to nearly 7,000 ha in Saatli District. 

"The main reason is the low prices," says Calil Suleymanov from the village of Axmadbayli. "There is no profit, only loss, so we had to grow other crops. For example, I now sow sugar beet where I used to sow cotton. The yield is high and income has trebled."

It is a similar situation in Sabirabad District. Cotton plantations have fallen to 6,000 ha, while the area sown to cucurbits has doubled.

Tea cultivation, which is still declining, cannot be ignored. The State Statistics Committee reported that the tea harvest in Lankaran District has fallen by more than 75 per cent. In the first half year the harvest of green leaves in the district was a mere 31.5 tonnes, while 130 tonnes were harvested during this period last year. The local authorities are doing their utmost to revive the sector but have nothing to show for it yet.

The examples given show that agriculture needs constant attention. The conditions for growing crops and getting them to market at home and abroad still need to be improved.