Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 16
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
Uzbekistan plans to switch to market pricing for all crops by 2021, as stated in the draft Strategy for the Development of Agriculture for 2020-2030, Trend reports referring to Uzbek media.
The document provides a plan for phasing out state control of the processes of production, sale and processing of cotton and wheat, and promoting the diversification of all agricultural production. Non-strategic state enterprises in the sphere of providing material and technical resources, services and product processing will be transferred for privatization.
"The main objective of the strategy, supported by the leadership of the country, is deregulating the sector, which will provide farmers, producers and agro-industrial enterprises with complete freedom in the choice of the crops to grow and the markets for sales," Minister of Agriculture Zhamshid Khojaev said at an informal briefing in Tashkent.
"I am talking about a phased transition through the introduction of mechanisms that contribute to the growth of industry productivity, since over the years many farms and infrastructure have been completely reoriented to certain crops, and the state has dealt with sales issues. That is, in the new conditions, the farmers need to completely rethink their approach to agriculture, land use and market conditions," he stressed.
The strategy also provides for the creation of an intervention fund in the grain market in 2020. In 2021, a transition to market pricing for all crops is planned. It is also intended to abolidh state procurement of cotton and wheat with the transition to the purchase of cotton by clusters and wheat solely to maintain the intervention fund.
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