28.09.2021

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited Kushtepa District, where he got acquainted with the technology of drip irrigation of cotton.

Cultivating land is a laborious process in central Fergana. Especially in Kushtepa district, 70% of the territory of which is land with low fertility. Accordingly, the indicators of crop cultivation were also low.

During his visit to the Fergana Region in 2019, the President has instructed on the introduction of drip irrigation in such areas.

Today, a project based on this technology is being implemented by Fergana Global Textile cluster in cooperation with the Israeli company Netafim.

At the first stage, drip irrigation was introduced on 215 hectares of land. For this, an artificial reservoir with a volume of 17 thousand cubic meters was built and 3 vertical wells were drilled. Modern equipment for $520 thousand is installed. 60 hectares of cotton fields can be irrigated simultaneously with this technology.

The effect of the technology is tangible. Thus, the consumption of water, fertilizers and fuel was reduced by half, the cost of mechanization was reduced by nine times. Ten young agronomists have been trained to effectively operate the new system.

The President got acquainted with the drip irrigation process and talked with the staff.

«The soil here is sandy. There is a constant lack of water. However, the approach to work was the same as elsewhere here. Therefore, it was unprofitable to engage in agriculture in the district. For example, 10-12 centners of cotton were harvested per hectare and 45 centners are expected this year. All this is the result of a scientific approach. It can be done, can’t be», - the President said.

At the second stage of the project, it is planned to introduce drip irrigation on 1,2 thousand hectares of land. According to experts, the technology will fully recoup the costs in two seasons.

On the site a conversation was held with the mass media representatives, as well.