Ministry of Agriculture: cotton procurement has exceeded 5 million tons, but harvesting continues

The harvest has exceeded 5 million tons, but intake continues

The Ministry of Agriculture of Uzbekistan announced that cotton procurement in the country has exceeded 5 million tons, but harvesting and intake of the crop are still ongoing. According to the electronic platform Agrotarozi, since the start of the season, as of November 13, 5,047,095 tons of raw cotton have been procured — 112.2% of the contractual volume of 4.5 million tons. On November 13 alone, another 2,899 tons were accepted. Zamon.uz and Kun.uz reported this, citing the ministry.

Response to doubts on social media

The clarification was prompted by videos circulating on social media showing that cotton still remains in some fields — on this basis, the 5-million-ton result was called into question. The Ministry emphasized that reaching the nationwide target does not mean harvesting is complete in every field, and the presence of cotton in a field does not mean that previously accepted harvest was not accounted for. As Kun.uz notes, the ministry pointed out that conflating the total volume of the harvest as of a certain date with the question of whether harvesting is finished in all fields is misleading; moreover, 4.6 million tons is only a preliminary forecast figure for the current year, not an upper limit, so accepting a larger amount of cotton involves no contradiction. After the five-million-ton mark was reached, harvesting continues in most regions.

The example of Bukhara region and an analysis of the video

As an example, the ministry cited Bukhara region: 530,677 tons have been harvested there since the start of the season — 88,677 tons more than the set target of 442,000 tons, and on November 13 the region accepted another 1,228 tons. Commenting on a video from one of the fields in the Gijduvan district, the ministry suggested that the farmer may have carried out defoliation on most of the area, failed to follow early-ripening agrotechnology, or planted the cotton late: the bolls in the video are open, but the cotton leaves have not yet fallen.

Accounting and payments

Responding to doubts about the reliability of the accounting, the ministry said that the harvest is weighed on electronic scales and recorded through the Agrotarozi, Hosil qabuli and AgroDocs systems, and the PK-17 waybill for each consignment is confirmed with an electronic digital signature by both the delivering and the receiving party. According to the ministry's explanation, a video showing one cart driving onto the scales several times does not prove that the same consignment was counted twice: when transporting from fields located close to the intake point, multiple trips by the vehicle are natural, and each consignment is weighed separately; if a violation is suspected, it must be checked through the established procedure. Addressing complaints about delayed payments, the ministry stressed that the volume of the harvest and payment discipline are separate matters: the 13–14 trillion soums of net profit mentioned in the head of state's congratulation is an expected economic result, and this does not mean that the funds have already been paid out to all farmers.