TEA WITH LEMON AFTER PILAF

Under the post-oil economic policy, Azerbaijan is pushing specialization and concentration of production facilities taking into account the natural and economic conditions of the regions. Given that Azerbaijan has nine of eleven global climatic zones, this approach should justify itself in the foreseeable future. Thus, the southern regions of the country with favorable natural conditions for growing citrus fruits, creating tea plantations and cultivating rice are of particular interest.

A determined stance of the government

On September 12, President Ilham Aliyev signed a new bill on additional measures concerning the development of citrus, tea and rice production. The executive authorities of Lankaran, Sheki, Yevlakh, Aghdash, Astara, Bilasuvar, Goychay, Lerik, Masalli, Ujar, Zagatala, and Zardab, as well as relevant state structures are instructed to determine the lands suitable for cultivation.

The ministries of agriculture and economy are instructed to prepare and submit proposals to the presidential administration on improving the mechanisms for supporting economic entities to stimulate the expansion of tea plantations, citrus orchards and rice cultivation areas, as well as to lease or sell necessary agricultural equipment and technological equipment.

The State Committee on Property will ensure that the ownership of new land plots is transferred to business entities. The Financial Stability Board will accelerate the measures on developing insurance in the agricultural sector.

The measures indicated in the order were listed after the visit of the president to Lankaran and Jalilabad, where he met with local farmers, and also during the Republican meeting on development of tea, rice and citrus crops production held in Lankaran on September 3.

Potential for growth

Traditionally, the president announced the prospects of developing the tea plantations, citrus orchards, and rice fields given the increasing demand for these crops. After all, Azerbaijan covers even the domestic demand for tea, rice and citrus fruits through imports only, while the existing potential allows exporting these products.

The government spent $45 million on tea imports in 2016 versus only $6.1 million of tea exports. As of last year, a similar situation was with the import of citrus fruits and rice: $17 million and $37 million, respectively.

"That means about $100 million. By developing these traditional industries through domestic production, we will save this money. This is the first stage. The main priority is the creation of a large export potential. These instructions must be carried out. Only then we will achieve this goal. In parallel, we should look for export markets for these products," said Ilham Aliyev.

In general, Azerbaijan spent $1.3 billion (15.49% of the total volume of imported products) on purchasing food products in 2016.

Tea: reviving the former glory

It is difficult to imagine, but the tea grown in Azerbaijan in the mid-1980s used to meet 8-10% of the demand of the former USSR with 300 million population. The area of ​​tea plantations in Azerbaijan reached its peak in 1985 - 13.4 thousand hectares, when the yield was 31.7 thousand tons of tealeaves.

With an average annual consumption of 910 grams of tea per capita in the USSR, this indicator was 1.5 kg in Azerbaijan.

Thus, it is not surprising that it was planned to increase the area of ​​tea plantations to 21 thousand hectares by 2005 (50 thousand tons), and 80 thousand tons of tealeaves in the future.

Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons the area of ​​tea plantations in Azerbaijan has fallen to 1.016 thousand hectares by 2016, having decreased 13 times in comparison with 1985. The total yield in 2017 was only 1.02 thousand tons, or almost 30 times less than peak performance. Today, to achieve a level of self-sufficiency, it is required to increase tea production to 12-13 thousand tons.

By the way, the first harvest can be obtained only at the third or fourth year, while the tea bush is fully formed only in the sixth to seventh year. While the life cycle of tea plantations can reach 100 years, their industrial exploitation is 40 years.

That is, even with the state’s support, the years should pass until new tea plantations laid in Lankaran, Astara, Masalli and other regions not only fully cover Azerbaijan’s needs for tea, but also enable us to export tealeaves.

However, the gradual increase in tea production due to the growth of areas and yields will allow Azerbaijan to access the markets of Russia and Georgia and to increase the supply volumes under the Made in Azerbaijan brand to Germany, the USA, UAE, Britain, Afghanistan, Iran, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. This promising export direction will become a stable source of currency in the country for many decades.

Rice for us and our neighbors

Azerbaijan can relatively quickly change the situation with rice production and fully achieve self-sufficiency levels.

Currently, the rice growing in Azerbaijan is experiencing its second revival. A couple of years ago, this labor-intensive industry was in a difficult situation. Due to the difficulties with the timely implementation of irrigation, and the lack of benefits similar to those provided by wheat cultivation, farmers were forced to abandon the cultivation of rice.

According to experts, the most favorable areas for rice cultivation are Lankaran, Sheki, Yevlakh, Astara, Goychay, Masalli, Ujar, and Zardab.

Azerbaijan’s annual demand for rice is 30 thousand tons, or 2.7-3 kg per capita. In 2016, 2.5 thousand hectares of land were allocated for rice and 5.6 thousand tons of rice were produced, which is almost twice the yield of 2015.

In 2016, rice was planted in Yevlakh, Samukh, Sheki and Masalli. It is noteworthy that in Masalli, farmers last planted rice in 2006.

This year, the area of rice fields increased to 5.2 thousand hectares. This was largely facilitated thanks to state subsidies: ₼40 per hectare of rice, seedlings, and ₼50 for the purchase of fuel and lubricants for machinery. Also, the state covers 70% of the costs of mineral fertilizers and herbicides.

If the current rates are maintained, by 2018 Azerbaijan will be able to fully provide itself with rice and to export rice to neighboring countries.

Citrus fruits with high-yielding varieties

A humid subtropical climate in Azerbaijan is observed only in a small area. Therefore, more than 95% of citrus orchards are located in the Lankaran and Astara.

According to the Azerbaijani President, Azerbaijan imported 9,000 tons of lemons, 4,600 tons of tangerines, 12,000 tons of oranges, and 2,000 tons of kiwi. The initial task of the government is to ensure full satisfaction of domestic demand, which requires an additional 27 thousand tons of citrus fruits.

Azerbaijan harvested 19 thousand tons and 46 thousand tons of citrus fruits in 2010 and 2016, respectively. "The growth is very large - more than twice in six years. This is a good dynamic, but so far, this cannot fully satisfy our needs," said president Aliyev.

It is important that the producers of citrus fruits are supported by the state financially to make new gardens and have guarantees of assistance in emergency conditions. Farmers still remember the cold days of January-February 2008, when thousands of lemon, orange and mandarin trees were frozen and more than three thousand farms suffered serious material damage.

Citrus orchards and tea plantations are one of the main agricultural assets. In other words, unlike vegetables, cereals and berries, trees and bushes are not planted every year and should be particularly taken care of. Accordingly, farmers will be happy if the state helps them to insure against severe frosts, droughts and other unpleasant natural events. By the way, this issue was particularly indicated in the presidential order mentioned above.

In addition, given the small areas under the gardens, it is important to lay high-yielding varieties of citrus. In this regard, it is possible to welcome steps to plant tangerine imported from the Republic of Korea, which yields fruits 2-3 times faster, as well as the Japanese satsuma and lemons, which are characterized by high yield and frost resistance.

First fruits

According to the reports of district administrations, the results of regional specialization and concentration of agricultural production are already yielding results. According to the head of the executive power of Masalli, Rafil Huseynov, initially, the local farmers refused to grow traditional crops for the region and concentrated on grain production. As a result, the areas allocated for wheat reached 60% of all sowing areas. However, being convinced of the unprofitable nature of this culture in Masalli, the villagers reduced the area under grains to 35% and took the liberated land for growing vegetables, rice, berries, early potatoes, peas, garlic, tobacco, corn. As a result, both the output of crop production and the number of jobs increased.

The state's interest in the development of tea, rice and citrus production should encourage the farmers for the cultivation of these crops in future. Thus, the importance and allocation of benefits or soft loans through the National Entrepreneurship Support Fund becomes extremely important. With consistent and coordinated progress towards the objectives, we can expect a significant growth in the economy of the southern regions of Azerbaijan, full provision of domestic demand for tea, rice and citrus fruits and the creation of a significant export potential in these sectors of agriculture.