State Seed Fund to provide insurance for seeds

/By AzerNews/

By Vusala Abbasova

The State Seed Fund of Azerbaijan will provide insurance for stored seeds, in accordance with the regulations of the State Seed Fund under the Agriculture Ministry of Azerbaijan, as approved on October 26, 2015.

Under the regulations, the fund will ensure the collecting, storage, updating and use of seeds from agricultural plants, as well providing manufacturers with a variety of high-yielding seeds.

In addition, the Fund will have the right to control prices for seeds. Thus, in the case of natural disasters, the fund will be able to prevent rises in seed prices.

The State Seed Fund also has the right to demand documents on imports and those products sold as seeds, to inspect commodity batches of seeds from sellers, as well as seeds used in crops.

The conditions were entered into force on October 31, 2015.

The State Seed Fund was established under the Ministry of Agriculture by order of the President, as an additional measure to strengthen state support for agricultural development.

Further, the state budget has allocated 10 million manats for the operation of the Fund, as well as for production and harvesting of seeds.

According to the financing of the State program on providing the population with food in the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2008-2015, the state budget will allocate 186.2 million manats in the current year, which is more than 55.2 million manats, or 42.1 percent, than was available in 2014.

Azerbaijan has made significant progress in the area of ??food security, becoming almost completely self-sufficient in basic food products.

"Today, Azerbaijan is self-sufficient in beef, providing 87 percent, mutton with 97 percent, and poultry at 98 percent. The country is completely self-sufficient in chicken eggs. Milk and dairy production has reached 76 percent, grain – 60 percent, butter – 52 percent, and paste goods – 58 percent,” said Head of Analysis and Statistics Department at the Agriculture Ministry Firdovsi Fikretzade.

According to the State Statistics Committee, the volume of agricultural production in Azerbaijan increased by 6.7 percent from January to September 2015, compared to the same period in 2014.