BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 30
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Uzbekistan’s Uzpahtasanoat JSC united organization responsible for the cotton industry allocated $2.1 million for the purchase of modern equipment for the newly created Cotton Seed Center at Uzbekistan’s Agrarian University, Trend reports citing Uzbekistan’s “Norma" legal information portal.
The "Cotton Seed Center" is formed as a state institution with a maximum number of managerial personnel of 22 people. The main goal of the new structure is to create high-yielding, precocious and disease-resistant promising varieties of cotton, providing elite and seed farms with high-quality original seeds.
In addition, the Center is responsible for organizing: training seminars for farm managers specializing in cotton production; practices for bachelors, undergraduates and doctoral students; retraining of agronomists, seed growers, as well as technical laboratory assistants of laboratories of elite seed production and seed production farms of Uzbekistan.
The Agrarian University received $1.3 million from Uzpahtasanoat JSC for the purchase of modern laboratory equipment necessary for the Center’s research work. Another $790,000 will be provided additionally before the end of the year.
Within 10 days, the new institution will be allocated 50 hectares of irrigated land in the Tashkent region for pilot trials.
The director of the Center is appointed and dismissed by the rector of the Agrarian University in agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture. The structure, charter, staffing and cost estimates of the Center will be approved within a month.
Organic cotton was grown in the Chinaz cluster in Uzbekistan's Tashkent region for the first time in October 2019.
New cotton is already available for export to world markets. Specialists from Bulgaria, who arrived in Uzbekistan to control the quality of cotton, appreciated the product, noting that it can be used not only for fiber, but also for the production of cottonseed oil.
Organic cotton is very different from normal, as it is grown without the use of chemistry, in accordance with strict biological criteria.
When growing organic cotton, only safe substances are used instead of insecticides to repel insect pests (aromatic baits - a mixture of garlic, chili pepper and soap).
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