At the meeting, which was held by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on September 12, special attention was paid to issues of expansion of cotton and textile clusters’ activities.
This year, cluster cotton harvesting has been established in 20 districts on an area of 164 thousand hectares, this experiment began to bring first results.
Reclamation and irrigation activities, purchasing agricultural machinery and other activities, previously carried out at the expense of centralized funds, are now carried out at the expense of own funds of clusters. Clusters have taken a leading place in the sphere of drip irrigation and irrigation using plastic pipes.
Most importantly, as expected, the yield of cotton in clusters to be higher for 5-10 centners compared to farms.
In order to further expand this justifiable system, 44 initiators with necessary production and financial capacity were selected after considering the proposals. In 2019, it is planned to harvest cotton in 61 clusters, covering 51 percent of all cotton fields.
In 2019, 70 out of 133 districts will fully be transferred to a cluster system. New clusters will organize 41 enterprises and will create about 23 million new jobs.
As a result of creation of new facilities and organization of clusters’ activities, in 2019, the country will process 78 percent of harvested cotton fiber, which is twice more than in 2017. By 2020, transition to full processing of cotton fiber will be accomplished. The share of finished products will be increased from 40 to at least 60 percent.
Therefore, we need to fully support clusters’ activities. The future of agriculture and its economic efficiency depend on them. Clusters should become an engine for accelerated development of agricultural sector, said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The need for extending all privileges granted to cotton-textile clusters this year, to clusters organized in subsequent years and further expanding their activities was noted.
Instructions were given on development of a program for phased introduction of drip irrigation in agriculture for 2019-2023, attracting preferential loans of international financial organizations to the industry.