Over one million hectares of land used to grow grain in Azerbaijan

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

Over one million hectares of land were used in 2019 to sow grain crops in Azerbaijan, head of the plant-growing monitoring department Rafail Guliyev has said.

As of December 27, 2019, wheat was sown on a 630,000-hectare-area, barley - on a 362,000-hectare-area and triticale – on a 20,000-hectare-area, which equaled overall one million hectares in the country, Guliev said in an address to a meeting dedicated to the results of 2019.

“Grain growing plays a strategic role in ensuring the food security of the country's population and its development is constantly in the spotlight of the state,” Guliyev said.

He stressed that in spite of the overall unfavorable weather conditions for sowing of grain crops in most districts of the country, sowing process was carried out in the optimal period of October to November.

"The preparatory work for plowing and sowing has been launched earlier this year. Some 450,000 hectares of land were plowed from July through August, which is two times more compared to 2018. Some 55,000 tons of fertilizers were used in the arable land. The preference was given to alternate plowing. This method was used on 35-40 percent of arable fields during the sowing of grain,” the head of the department said.

He added that “despite adverse weather conditions, abnormally warm weather, severe drought and lack of water for irrigation, irrigation work has already been completed on 50 percent of the sown area,” Guliyev said.

He emphasized that along with the application of innovative technologies to achieve high yields, one of the main tasks facing economic entities and farmers is the proper organization of the fight against agricultural pests and diseases.

It was noted that one of the important conditions for obtaining high yields of fall crops is the optimal timing of chemical control of weeds. Weeds are one of the factors that reduce the productivity of cultural plants, including fall wheat. Usually, during fall sowing, chemical measures against weeds are carried out when the air temperature is 12 degrees, especially in March. In some cases, late treatment of sown areas caused damage to the farm.

The event participants were thoroughly informed about the use of new pesticides in the fight against diseases and pests, the rules of technical safety when working with them, the fundamental principles of the transition to an integrated fight against diseases and pests and the use of new innovative technologies.

The meeting participants discussed ways to address the difficulties in irrigation of grain crops due to severe drought and water shortage in recent months, pesticide and feeding fertilizers for the implementation of agro-technical measures in the next stages.

The event was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agro Services Agency, research institutes, as well as local and foreign specialists operating in the companies importing pesticides.