Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Three agricultural industry including tobacco, cotton growing and sericulture will have definite privileges in Azerbaijan in line with the presidential decree.

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on March 2 amending the decree on state support for the development of tobacco cultivation in the country from October 5, 2016.

The changes introduced to the legislation imply issuing subsidies to population while selling tobacco to legal entities involved in tobacco refinery and individuals involved in entrepreneurship. It will comprise 0.05 manat ($0.02) per kilogram for dry tobacco and per 10 kilograms of raw tobacco

Previously, subsidies were granted only for sale of tobacco to processing enterprises.

The president also signed a decree to amend a decree on state support for cotton production, dated September 22, 2016.

The changes envisage granting population a subsidy in the amount of 0.1 manat ($0.05) per kilogram of raw cotton sold to legal entities engaged in cotton processing, and individuals engaged in entrepreneurial activity.

Earlier, subsidies were issued for cotton sales to refinery enterprises.

The same day, the president undersigned a document to amend a decree “On state support to development of sericulture in Azerbaijan", dated September 15, 2016. The updated decree removed word "depending on the variety" from paragraph 2.1 from the text of previous document, implying:

“Within two months to approve through coordination with the president the amount and order of issuing subsidy to persons engaged in the production of cocoons, per kilogram of raw cocoons acquired by enterprises for processing of cocoons and silk production, depending on the variety. "

From now on one size of the public subsidy is applied for each kilogram of raw cocoons regardless of their grades.

Cotton production, once considered to a key culture for the rural areas of Azerbaijan, now gets a chance to revive, following considerable decline observed over the past few years.

Cotton production was of crucial importance for the national economy in 1970-1980s, accounting for approximately 25 percent of overall agricultural revenue. At the time Azerbaijan harvested a million tons of cotton per year.

2016 is expected to see a real growth in cotton production in the country, as the government has focused on giving a new life to this industry.

The history of sericulture in Azerbaijan also dates back to almost fifteen hundred years and has very rich history.

When it comes to silk in Azerbaijan, the first place that comes to mind is ancient city of Sheki, which once considered the largest center for the production of silk and silk farming in the Middle Ages.

Earlier in April 2016, President Aliyev stated the necessity to develop sericulture, voicing his disappointment over lost of such an important branch of agriculture as silkworm breeding.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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