It is planned to increase cotton harvesting by machines to 50% from the total in 2020 in Tashkent, Syrdarya, Jizzakh and Kashkadarya provinces, and by 80% later on, said Nodir Otajonov, adviser to the Prime Minister/Chairman of Uzagrotechsanoatholding.
“This year we launched cotton harvesting with machines. It costs cheaper to harvest cotton with machines than with hands. The cost of one kilogram of hand-picked cotton was at 800-1000 soums, while with machine it cost 600 soums.
“This year, about 20 percent of cotton in Syrdarya province was harvested by machines. This year, cotton picking machines were actively used in Namangan, Andijan, Jizzakh, Syrdarya, Kashkadarya, Samarkand and Tashkent provinces. This system is improving.
Earlier it was noted that 3.3 billion soums were contributed for the project "Development of base set of technical equipment for cotton harvesting and launching machine harvesting on cluster basis". It was said that 11 organizations were assigned to achieve this.
Kadir Ismailov, the head of a department at the Ministry of Agriculture, said that there were about 1,500 cotton harvesters in the country, which allows harvesting 3.5-5% of the total cotton fields, according to a government program. By 2025, this figure is projected to increase by 35 percent.
