Uzbekistan will cut its cotton output by 10% over the next five years, the President Islam Karimov said, as production is switched to vegetable farming.

Production in Uzbekistan, the world's fifth ranked cotton producer, will fall by 0.5m tonnes to 3.0m tonnes by 2020, according to a speech published on the President's official website over the weekend.

Mr Karimov said the move would free up irrigated land for vegetable farming.

Self-sufficiency drive

Cotton and textile production became Uzbekistan's main industries during the Soviet period, and the over 1m citizens are mobilised for the annual harvest, in a practice that has sparked accusations of slave labour.

Around 40% of production in consumed locally, in a textile industry that accounts for more than a quarter of industrial production.

But falling cotton prices, and a drive toward self-sufficiency in food stocks, is encouraging a shift away from cotton.

The government has already achieved its goal of wheat self-sufficiency, and now attention is turning to fruit, vegetable and rice production.

Falling planted areas

Farmers in certain areas have already been released from a legal obligation to cultivate cotton, although subsidies remain in place.

This shift in priorities is putting pressure on irrigated land availability.

In November of last year, the US Department of Agriculture forecast a long-term fall in planted areas of cotton in Uzbekistan, but saw production remaining steady thangs to agronomic improvement.

Chinese demand

As well as the need for higher vegetable production, Mr Karimov highlighted the "sharp decline of prices and demand for cotton fibre on the world market".

Global cotton demand has weakened, as buying from China dries up.

Chinese imports have been hit by a slowdown in growth in the industrial economy, as well as very high state-inventories, acquired during a period of stockpiling aimed at supporting domestic farmer incomes.

Last week Reuters reported that the Chinese government was preparing to auction off more of its estimated 11m tonnes of inventories, after an abortive auction last year, where less than 1% of the 1m tonnes offered was sold.