The Ministry of Agriculture of Uzbekistan intends to organize in Russia the cultivation of soybeans, wheat, oilseeds on an area of up to 1 million hectares to meet the needs of its market, the ministry's press service reported.
According to the press service, the Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan Zhamshid Khodjaev and the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Sergey Levin online discussed the issues of providing agricultural land in Russia to Uzbek enterprises for growing several types of agricultural crops.
“At the current stage, we propose to launch this project on an area of 35 thousand hectares to establish contacts and mechanisms of interaction, as well as their practical development with the subsequent export of the crop to Uzbekistan,” Khodjayev said during the negotiations.
According to the ministry, it is precisely those crops that are being considered for which there are natural soil and climatic conditions in Russia: oilseeds, soybeans, wheat.
“We express our interest in the coming years to gradually expand these areas to 300-500 thousand hectares, and in the future - up to 1 million hectares,” Khodzhaev added.
Levin, in turn, said that currently in Russia there are about 8-13 million hectares of land for introduction into agricultural circulation, and 23 subjects of the Russian Federation have already expressed their preliminary interest in supporting the Uzbek-Russian project.
The parties agreed to discuss specific mechanisms and terms for the implementation of the project during the visit of the Uzbek working group to the Russian Federation in October, the Ministry of Agriculture added.