CONTINUATION OF THE WORLD BANK MISSION WORKING VISIT TO THE SUGHD REGION
On the second day of its working trip, the delegation of the World Bank Mission visited the facilities of the state institution ‘State Commission for Testing Agricultural Crops and Protection of Varieties in the B. Gafurov district and Kanibadam town.
Initially, they visited the State Variety Testing Station in the B. Gafurov district for the ceremonial opening of a well for water supply and irrigation, as well as inspected the variety testing plots in the area.
Then, the head of the World Bank Mission, Mr. Hazem Ibrahim Khambal, ceremoniously launched the irrigation system, and the first irrigation of the year using water from the well began.
It should be noted that the State Variety Testing Station in the B. Gafurov district has 26.63 hectares of agricultural land for conducting scientific research and testing agricultural crop varieties and experienced a lack of water for irrigation for many years.
This year, the State Institution “Agriculture Entrepreneurship Development” within the framework of the “Strengthening Resilience of the Agriculture Sector” project drilled a well with a capacity of 25 liters per second using modern technology for irrigating the station lands.
It should be noted that as part of the project, to strengthen the material and technical base and develop the seed production sector, the SRASP PMU provided an MTZ-82 tractor with attached equipment and high-quality certified seeds of Elite category for 10 hectares (5 hectares of cotton seeds and 5 hectares of wheat).
Subsequently, the World Bank Mission visited the variety testing station in Kanibadam town and highly praised the work of the specialists. The state variety testing station in Kanibadam town has 24 hectares of irrigated land, and its activities are aimed at testing new, climate-resistant and high-yielding varieties of crops, as well as developing seed production.
With the support of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, the SRASP PMU completed a full external and internal renovation and painting of the warehouse intended for storing various seeds of agricultural crops and scientific materials, covering an area of 217 square meters, and put it into operation as part of the first component of the project ” Strengthening Resilience of the Agriculture Sector”.
The old and dilapidated roof of the warehouse was fully and qualitatively repaired, with the repair area of 174 square meters.
Alongside the major renovation of the warehouse, a concrete wall 58 meters long and 3 meters high was built around the area of the station unprotected for many years; it was painted and covered with a roof, and gates were installed at the entrance. A toilet was also built and put into operation.
Additionally, within the project framework, another MTZ-80 tractor, cotton-cleaning equipment and high-quality Elite category seeds (for wheat and cotton) were provided.
Next, the World Bank Mission inspected the agricultural equipment of the OJSC named after Enajon Boymatova. It should be noted that the State Institution “Agriculture Entrepreneurship Development” provided the OJSC named after E. Boymatova with an MTZ-80 tractor and other agricultural machinery (precision seeder, inter-row cultivators, and plowing equipment), which made the labor easier for the farmers.
The farmers and specialists expressed their gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, the State Institution “Agriculture Entrepreneurship Development” and the World Bank delegation for their continuous support.
In the end, the World Bank Mission thanked the farmers (project beneficiaries) for their warm welcome.
