Interfax
October 16

Uzbekistan has started sowing its winter crops, the country's Agriculture Ministry told Interfax.

A crop area of 1.39 million hectares is planned for the 2003 harvest, 149,000 hectares more than for this year. The irrigated crop area will be increased 41,000 hectares to 1.1 million and the non-irrigated crop area 108,000 to 290,000 hectares. The winter crops should be sown by October 20.

Uzbekistan plans to harvest 4.63 billion tonnes of grain in 2003, including 4.46 billion tonnes of wheat. Average yield is forecast at 3.33 tonnes per hectare, including 3.95 tonnes per hectare for irrigated land and 1 tonne per hectare for non-irrigated land. These are forecasts for agriculture companies.

In addition, household farms are expected to sow crops on 150,000 hectares and harvest 650,000 tonnes of grain. Uzbekistan increased its gross grain harvest 34% in 2002 to 5.34 million tonnes, with 4.67 million tonnes harvested by agriculture companies and 665,000 tonnes by household farms.

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