PRIORITIES IN FARMING

The year 2015, which was declared by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to be the Year of Agriculture, ended. This follows productive work by the state structure for implementing the schedule of measures relating to state support for the whole of the country's agro-industrial complex and for thousands of workers in the country-side. Have these measures been effective? The reply to this question will clearly be demonstrated by the situation on the country's food markets in 2016, taking into account the latest events surrounding the Azerbaijani manat and the need to substitute domestic produce for export necessities. Moreover, the agrarian experts themselves are satisfied with the outcome of their activity.

Facts and figures

Judging from the data of the State Statistical Committee, on 1 October 2015 the output of plant-growing had grown by 10.4 per cent and that of animal husbandry by 2.5 per cent, and this has had a positive effect on the overall rate of growth in agricultural production which was 6.7 per cent.

This year will go down as a year of record grain harvests, the average yield throughout the republic being 30.4 centners per hectare, which is seven centners higher than last year; 2.8m tonnes of grain have been harvested, and from an area of 28,500 ha given over to maize cultivation for grain, 168,200 tonnes have been gathered in.

The year has been a sufficiently successful one for farmers engaged in vegetable, melon and gourd and fruit growing; in the last 10 days of December, 1.3m tonnes were gathered. The potato yield was also higher than last year and reached 831,000 tonnes, while two-thirds of the new harvest is accounted for by Calilabad, Tovuz and Samkir districts. In the traditional potato heartland, Gadabay, they were not able to bring the harvest up to the necessary condition owing to drought, and the cabbage plots were also stricken by disease.

This year there was an unusually abundant crop of melons, producing more than 484, 000 tonnes, which was 42,000 tonnes higher than last year. Melon harvesting is still ongoing.

A sector like fruit-growing has produced a particularly abundant yield. So, 880,000 tonnes of fruits were grown in the country's gardens in the regions and supplied to the food markets. The production of green tea rose to 575.9 tonnes, which is 150.3 tonnes more than last year. 

Another important commodity is raw cotton which may become an important and considerable export item for the country in the future if the right strategy is employed. This year the village enterprises picked and dispatched almost 35,000 tonnes of this product for processing, which is nowhere near the potential output that could be reached.

As far as animal husbandry is concerned, it occupied the top place in the number of reforms and development measures. At the beginning of De-cember 2015, the number of head of cattle on the country's livestock farms was 2.7m (a growth of 16,400 head of cattle) and 8,7m head of sheep and goats (an increase of 98,000).

A positive element is that the number of large livestock complexes in the country with herds of more than 3,000 pedigree cows, and the volumes of the feed base providing for the needs of the farms have grown. This has helped to improve the economic indices in live-stock breeding. Thus, in January to November 2015, the production of meat in live weight reached 429,000 tonnes, which is 2 per cent higher than last year's figure for the same period, and the milk yield was 1.8m tonnes (4 per cent higher).

Reforms and successes

Thus, the figures appear to indicate that the country is moving towards self-sufficiency in agricultural output in a planned manner, which is extremely important, not only from the point of view of the country's food security, but also for maintaining the prices of foodstuffs within acceptable margins. In principle, 20 years of reform in the agricultural sector are bearing real fruit. All the more so, since a number of new initiatives to boost state support for agriculture and to improve its mechanism have been launched at the highest level.

In this connection, President Ilham Aliyev has signed a number of instructions, which have had a positive impact on the activity of the country's agro-industrial complex. No-one can say today that that there is a shortage of harvesting equipment and machines. At the present time, the ministry has provided the farm workers with highly productive machines and equipment. Supplies of mineral fertilisers to the farm workers are being provided on a high level. There are no problems regarding any shortage of them," the country's Agriculture Minister Heydar Asadov stated recently.

One of the successful reforms this year may be regarded as the setting up of agricultural parks in Samkir district and similar plans for other regions. Besides this, the large farming complexes now covering areas of 30,000 ha that are being created in different districts of the country are operating successfully. The total investment in their creation has amounted to 123.8m manats, funded by the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES); discounted loans amounting to 54.7, manats have been allocated to create an agricultural infrastructure. On these areas, land melioration work has been conducted, irrigation canals have been constructed and other technical problems have been resolved. The Ministry of Agriculture is working on incentive mechanisms, the introduction of which will allow small agricultural producers to unite into various production groups, while extending the possibilities of types of farming like the family farm.

Yet another trend in the activity within the framework of the Year of Agriculture ensued from implementing tasks relating to the setting up of an internet agriculture system. Besides this, measures have been adopted to improve the activity of the State Veterinary Service laboratories, and programmes have been drawn up for creating a system of registration and identification for livestock. Radical changes have been wrought in the activity of the State Phytosanitary Service; private phytosanitary services have been set up which are issued with licences and also with the means to protect plants.

Problems and solutions to them

At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture does not deny that there are problems in the agricultural sector which are affecting the final results. Thus, according to the minister, H. Asadov, one of the problems in agriculture which they have started to resolve this year was ensuring transparency in the allocation of subsidies to farmers. "In this connection, we have conducted a process of keeping inventories, determining the size of the plots of land belonging to villagers who have received subsidies and have entered all these figures into a database on the Ministry of Agriculture website. Thanks to this we can keep track of who has obtained state subsidies and how much they have received," the minister stated. The studies conducted show that by no means all the farm workers know their rights and the benefits available for them.

For example, a presidential instruction exists on the allocation of subsidies for a second sowing in plant-growing. But, according to Minister Asadov, at the beginning of September not a single application had been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture in 2015 for funds for a second sowing. While in 2014 there were second sowings of crops on 1,000 ha, in 2015 they had expanded to 14,000 ha. "This means that this has been insufficiently advertised and promoted and there is a lack of information provided for the moment," the minister concluded. "The Ministry is in a position to provide subsidies for second sowings in plant-growing. Against the backdrop of the world crisis, the financial resources allocated to the ministry are sufficient, with no reservations for not meeting the commitments assumed."

He recalled that today the farmers are paying 40 per cent of the cost of farm machinery and equipment, which is subsidised; the allowances provided for motor oil and fuel have gone up by 25 per cent. Subsidies have been extended to irrigation systems which allows the installation of intensive irrigation methods to be speeded up. H. Asadov asserts that today there is a real possibility of boosting productivity in live-stock breeding fivefold. Our average productivity is 1.5 per cent, while in the European countries it is 1.8 per cent. On average, the local cows produce 5-6 litres of milk per day, while the cattle imported from the European countries produce 25-30 litres per day. The imported cows are kept in stalls moreover, which means that the area of pastures required can be reduced by tens of thousands of hectares.

Valuable, nutritious fodder crops can be grown on these areas of land which will be called upon to increase the milk and meat yield. "We are paying serious attention to this issue," the minister added.

According to him there are problems in plant-growing because the issue of qualitative renewal of the seed fund is being resolved. "We should try to get types of grain cultures introduced which would be drought-resistant, and we are drawing up a programme for potatoes and vegetables. The aim is to achieve a four- to five-fold growth in the yield," the agriculture minister added. 

Well, the successful fulfilment of all the above listed tasks is acquiring an almost strategic and pressing character. For a growth in domestic output of agricultural produce may have a substantial impact, not only regarding the stabilisation of food prices in the wholesale and retail sales networks, but also on boosting the volumes for export. And this will be additional income for Azerbaijan's treasury which is suffering as a result of the drop in oil prices.