Uzbekistan : 90pc cotton harvesting to be mechanized by 2016

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Uzbekistan : 90pc cotton harvesting to be mechanized by 2016

Uzbekistan plans to provide mechanized harvesting of 80-90 per cent of cotton by 2016, Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev said at the International Uzbek Cotton and Textile Fair, which kicked off on Wednesday in Tashkent. Over 1,000 cotton-picking machines manufactured at the Tashkent Tractor Plant (TTP) participated in this year's cotton harvest, Prime Minister said. Shavkat Mirziyoyev underlined that the Uzbek machine builders have created fundamentally new cotton picking machines, which for technical specifications, pricing and service options meet the needs of farmers.

The TTP is scheduled to manufacture some 3,000 cotton-picker machines in 2014. New machines were for the first time presented at the Cotton and Textile Fair. "We continue to work to improve the cotton harvesting machinery. At the moment six more modifications of the cotton harvesting equipments, where modern technical solutions were used, are being tested," Mirziyoyev said.

Up to 50,000 cotton harvesting machines were working in Uzbeksitan's cotton fields till 1991, some 70 percent of the harvests were carried out by mechanized means. Tashselmash plant, specializing in the production of cotton harvesting machinery, was annually producing up to 7,000 machines, a part of which were exported.