Representatives of the territorial working group of the Cotton Growing Council and agricultural service centers of all regions visited Syrdarya
On 6 June in Syrdarya region a field conference on application of agro-technologies of local cultivation of foreign varieties and hybrids of cotton, the state of cotton development on fields where highly effective agro-technology on care of imported varieties and hybrids of cotton is introduced, introduction of agro-technologies of local cultivation of imported varieties and hybrids of cotton, introduction of cotton seed sifting and crop rotation practical seminar was held. It was attended by representatives of the territorial working group of the Cotton Council under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and agro-service centres from all regions.
The first point of the visit was the Uzbek-Chinese joint venture in Syrdarya district. Here, Peng Sheng LLC studied the experience of growing cotton on the basis of Chinese agro-technique. Here, on a plot of 68 acres, cotton is planted in a two-row method on 34 acres by drip irrigation and in a conventional single-row method on 34 acres by 76 cm simple method. The seeds are being hammered into the ground on 25 April, the growth condition is positive these days, the field is free from weeds and necessary agronomic measures are being taken. Last year 70 quintals per hectare was harvested from this area. This year it is planned to get 70-75 centners per hectare.
The next point of the seminar was the farm ‘Suleyman oglu Khudoykul’ in Syrdarya district. Here, sprouted seeds are grown by sowing seeds in sackcloth. At the site, the variety s-6524 for the 2024 crop was planted by the traditional method on 16 hectares of the total area of 50.3 hectares and by the conventional method of 90 cm on 34.3 hectares. The cotton yield last year was 51.5 quintals per hectare on a cotton plot sown by double row method and 42 quintals on a cotton plot sown by single row method with 90 cm row spacing. This year, the plan is to get more than 55 quintals of yield on the area sown in double rows and more than 45 quintals on the area sown in 90 cm row spacing.
When members of the Council's Cotton Working Group inspected a field planted with cotton, it was noted that the cotton is currently in need of mineral fertiliser and foliar feeding.
The next area was the ‘Boston’ area of the cotton textile cluster of Polite Tex Syrdarya Ltd. Here a comparative study of Chinese agro-technique as well as cotton crops grown in the traditional way was conducted. On 60.8 hectares of arable land was planted generation P-1 variety ‘Gulistan’, in this circuit introduced technology of drip irrigation through a pond with a capacity of 3000 m3.
‘When growing cotton using Chinese technology, a more complete germination of seedlings is observed than in the traditional method. As of the first decade of June, while cotton grown in the traditional way is 15-20 cm tall, the variety in the area is 35-40 cm tall. Also, the seedlings have fully rooted, and based on phenological observations, which are now underway, we can say that in the second decade of September it will be possible to harvest a full crop of cotton,’ Mukhtarh Nishankulov, a senior researcher at the Syrdarya Oblast Research Experimental Station of the Research Institute of Cotton Breeding, Seed Production and Agrotechnologies, PhD in agricultural sciences, told us.
Then he was appointed Secretary of the Cotton Council under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Director of the National Centre for Knowledge and Innovation in Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Under Otazhonov's leadership, a meeting was held with the participation of the working group and heads of agro-service centres of all regions, dedicated to reports on practical work carried out in the regions since the beginning of the current year, and the definition of tasks to be carried out in the future. After hearing the reports of the working groups, Shukhrat Otazhonov set the following tasks to be performed as soon as possible to the directors of territorial agro-service centres and members of the working group of the Cotton Council:
1. Foliar feeding of cotton and treatment with preparations containing acetomiprid, imidocloprid;
2. treatment of the field with special acaricide against spiders or iso decoction;
3. 4-5 days after treatment scatter 2,000 pieces of goldenrod and 2 grams of trichogrammes per hectare;
4. setting pheromone traps, yeast traps around the field;
5. applying fertiliser, irrigation and cultivation on time;
6. keeping a field book to record all activities carried out;
7. every 3-4 days on the diagonal of the field or within 10-20 metres from the perimeter of the field within at least 10 points carefully check leaves, stems, growing points of cotton seedlings in order to control insects;
8. in case of detection of suspicious insect or disease during inspection of imported cotton varieties it is necessary to immediately contact quarantine inspector and in accordance with established procedure to take measures on sampling and sending them to phytosanitary laboratory.
