By Sara Israfilbayova

Cotton is one of the oldest natural fibers in the World, which has been grown in Egypt, India, Pakistan, America, China.

Cotton-growing has always been a tradition in Azerbaijan, where people have been engaged in cotton growing for centuries.

Today, the state is making every effort to revive the cotton industry, providing huge support to entrepreneurs.

Year 2016 was a turning point from the perspective of cotton-growing in the country. Last year, cotton was planted on an area of 51,000 hectares, while the harvest hit 90,000 tons. That is three times more than in 2015.

The country has big plans for 2017, as the State Investment Program envisaged large funds for the development of cotton-growing. This year, cotton was planted in more than 20 regions of Azerbaijan.

To date, 199,818 tons of products have been delivered to cotton harvesting stations in Azerbaijan.

Up to now, the total volume of products exceeded the indicator of the previous year by 111,000 tons.

Compared with the previous year, this year, it was planted 2.7 times more-136,413 hectares.

Cotton production is most developed in Saatli (25,437 tons), Bilasuvar (24,234 tons), Barda (21,552 tons), Aghjabadi (19,555 tons) and Sabirabad (17,608 tons).

President Ilham Aliyev, who constantly made accent on importance of developing of this sphere, raised this issue once again at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to results of socio-economic development in the first half of 2017 and objectives for the future.

The head of state said Azerbaijan restored the glory of cotton growing, increasing crop area of cotton by about three times.

In early 2017, the State Program for 2017-2022 was approved with an aim of strengthening measures directed at developing this sphere. The purpose of the State Program is to develop cotton growing, increase export potential in this sphere, ensure employment of the rural population and increase the production of cotton.

The new goal of the state is to bring the cotton production up to 500,000 tons by 2022 from the current 260,000 tons.