'Azerbaijan will double agriculture products by 2020'

According to outcomes of this year, Azerbaijan expects to see 6-7%-growth within the agricultural sphere, said the Minister of Agriculture, Ismat Abbasov.

He says growth totaled 4.4% in the first quarter, while main production coincides with the 2nd and 3rd quarters. This index was 6.2% last year, the APA reports.

At the same time, Azerbaijan has sufficient potential to double agriculture products within some years. This concerns both plant-growing and animal-breeding. Regarding plant-growing, especially grain productivity; the minister stated that if the grain productivity increases to 35 centners from existing 25-26 centners on 1 hectare of area, Azerbaijan will meet its need for grain.

For the present, the attention is paid to bringing pedigree cattle to the country and their increase. Abbasov said that number of cattle in the country is sufficient, but due to too few bred animals, both meat and milk production is low.

Abbasov mentioned that all these issues are provided in the agriculture development strategy project submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers on April 10. He noted that the new strategy will cover the period by 2020. According to that strategy, the agriculture products will be doubled by 2020. (News.Az)