It is planned to attract $1 billion per year to the agro-industry and food industry

Minister of Agriculture Aziz Voitov spoke at an international conference on sustainable food security. It was reported by Spot with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture.

A meeting dedicated to food security and water supply was held in Tashkent on July 6. The event became part of the week of international partnership initiatives “New Uzbekistan: development, innovation and education”.

The official noted a noticeable increase in agricultural production in recent years. Thus, the area occupied by fruit and vegetable crops reached 470 thousand hectares, including 75 thousand hectares of intensive orchards, and their production increased to 22.5 million tons.

The grain yield is now 70 centners per hectare, and this year’s crop is expected to reach 8.1 million tons. Agricultural productivity is growing by an average of 5% per year.

This was achieved, among other things, by the reclamation of 580 thousand hectares of land taken out of circulation. The establishment of irrigation on them ensured the additional production of 3.7 million tons of agricultural products. In the next five years, another 0.5 million hectares will be introduced into agricultural turnover.

The cotton industry, in turn, is developing through the introduction of a cluster model. Of the $5.3 billion in investments attracted by cotton clusters, $1.2 billion went to the agricultural sector. Thanks to this, the cotton yield reached 34 centners per 1 ha.

Farmers and representatives of agribusiness received $2.5 billion from foreign organizations. These funds were used to implement 4,000 projects, primarily in the fruit and vegetable sector. In the next three years, it is planned to annually attract $1 billion to the agricultural and food industries.

Investments are also attracted to the processing of agricultural products. In recent years, 13,000 enterprises in this area have been launched, as well as 66 agro-logistics centers for 900,000 tons. The total capacity of warehouses and refrigerators reached 1.5 million tons.

Until 2025, it is planned to build three large agro-logistics centers for 1.7 million tons – in Tashkent, Samarkand and Andijan. ADB will allocate $197 million for these projects.