The primary crops produced in Azerbaijan are agricultural cash crops, grapes, cotton, tobacco, citrus fruits, and vegetables. The first three crops account for over half of all production, and the last two together account for an additional 30 percent. Livestock, dairy products, and wine and liquors are also important farm products.[1]
In the early 1990s, Azerbaijan's agricultural sector required substantial restructuring if it was to realize its vast potential. Prices for agricultural products did not rise as fast as the cost of inputs; the Soviet-era collective farm system discouraged private initiative; equipment in general and the irrigation system, in particular, were outdated; modern technology had not been introduced widely; and administration of agricultural programs was ineffective.[1]
Most of Azerbaijan's cultivated lands, which total over 1 million hectares, are irrigated by more than 40,000 kilometers of canals and pipelines. The varied climate allows for the cultivation of a wide variety of crops, ranging from peaches to almonds and from rice to cotton. In the early 1990s, agricultural production contributed about 30 to 40 percent of Azerbaijan's net material product, while directly employing about one-third of the labor force and providing a livelihood to about half the country's population. In the early postwar decades, Azerbaijan's major cash crops were cotton and tobacco, but in the 1970s grapes became the most productive crop. An anti-alcohol campaign by Moscow in the mid-1980s contributed to a sharp decline in grape production in the late 1980s. In 1991 grapes accounted for over 20 percent of agricultural production, followed closely by cotton.[1]
Production of virtually all crops declined in the early 1990s. In 1990 work stoppages and anti-Soviet demonstrations contributed to declines in agricultural production. The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the site of about one-third of Azerbaijan's croplands, substantially reduced agricultural production beginning in 1989. In 1992 agriculture's contribution to NMP declined by 22 percent. This drop was attributed mainly to cool weather, which reduced cotton and grape harvests, and to the continuation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The conflict-induced blockade of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic also disrupted agriculture there.[1]
An estimated 1,200 state and cooperative farms are in operation in Azerbaijan, with little actual difference between the rights and privileges of state and cooperative holdings. Small private garden plots, constituting only a fraction of total cultivated land, contribute as much as 20 percent of agricultural production and more than half of livestock production. Private landholders do not have equal access, however, to the inputs, services, and financing that would maximize their output.[1]
The Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan runs procurement centers dispersed throughout the country for government purchase of most of the tobacco, cotton, tea, silk, and grapes that are produced. The Ministry of Grain and Bread Products runs similar operations that buy a major portion of grain production. The remaining crops are sold in the private sector.[1] [2]
The Azerbaijani government tries to play an active role in the development of agriculture. For this purpose, it applies various measures including import substitution, tax exemptions, subsidies of machinery (combines, tractors, harvesters, and irrigation equipment), pesticides, and fertilizers. Land improvement, support and development of rural infrastructure, development of villages, and improvement of agricultural management are considered to be part of government support in the agricultural sector. As a result of these promotions, the Azerbaijani government aims to increase productivity, technical and technological renewal, growth and diversification of agricultural exports, an efficient organization of state support, improvement of the mechanism for subsidizing, development of large farms, provision of support to small farms, etc.[3]
According to the statistics of 2013, there were 871,220 rural farms and households, 2,343 agricultural enterprises, 2,593 farms of individual entrepreneurs, and 531 ventures that operate in the agricultural sector of Azerbaijan.
In 2012, the state allocated 468.2 million AZN (US$596.4 million) to the agricultural sector. In 2011, this number was 444.7 million AZN (around US$566.5 million). It was estimated that in 2012, $247 was spent from the state budget per hectare of land suitable for agricultural production, including both crops and livestock. Additionally, the volume of direct and indirect subsidies allocated by the government to the agriculture sector in 2012, was around 611 million AZN (more than US$778.3 million- 100 US Dollars = 78.5000 Azerbaijani Manats on 12/31/2012).[4]
The overall funds allocated from the state budget to the agro-industrial complex was 878.9 million AZN in 2011–2012. 485.7 million AZN which was accounted for 55.3 percent of total funds spent on the agro-industrial complex from the state budget was due to loans provided under state guarantee and irrigation and water management. 13.7 percent of this fund was in the form of direct subsidies, 9 percent on soft loans, 6.3 percent on fertilizers, machinery, and breed animals, 4.4 percent on forestry, fishing, hunting, and environmental measures, and so on.
As a direct result of state intervention in the agricultural sector, in January 2013, agricultural production increased 4.5 percent in Azerbaijan to 187.5 million AZN (growth in vegetable and crop production by 4.9 percent and in livestock by 4.5 percent). The exports of agricultural products (fruit and vegetable) from Azerbaijan amounted to US$276.7 million in January–June 2018 and it was 27 percent more than in 2017.
For 2019, the farmers will be provided with loans worth 10 million AZN to through the State Service on Management of Agricultural Projects and Credits under Azerbaijan's Agriculture Ministry.[5]
The Food Safety Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan which is a central executive authority is an additional attempt of the Azerbaijani government in order to develop agriculture further. The Agency regulates food safety standards (preparation and adoption of sanitation norms and hygiene standards), implement risk assessment, formal registration of agricultural products, and the materials that used for packaging. Moreover, it issues food safety certificates to exported food products, carries out state control over food safety, and protects the rights of consumers of agricultural products at all stages of the food supply chain.[6]
On August 19, 2019, President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on the application of the Law of the Republic No. 1617-VQ dated June 27, 2019 "On Agricultural Insurance" [7] and the establishment of the Agrarian Insurance Fund.[8] [9]
The following state programs have been designed by the government of Azerbaijan in order to be implemented under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan;[10]
In a 2013 U.S. Department of Labor report on Azerbaijan's labor conditions, research showed that children "are engaged in child labor in agriculture and street work."[11] In fact, evidence of child labor has been observed in the agricultural sector as far as the production of cotton, tea and tobacco is concerned.In 2014, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs issued a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor and Azerbaijan was listed among the countries resorting to child labor when it comes to cotton production.[12]
Azerbaijan produced in 2018:
In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, like melon (94 thousand tons), pear (52 thousand tons) and apricot (28 thousand tons).[13]
The overall agricultural product value with general prices was estimated to be 3290.4 million manat in January–July 2016. The production of January–July in the agricultural industry was 51% and 49% and related to cattle-breeding industry and plant-growing industry respectively.
The production from cattle-breeding and plant-growing industries were increased in respect to the same period of the previous year. However, the overall production from the agricultural industry decreased by 6.3% in relation to the previous year.In 2016, the majority of products of the agricultural industry was increased in production capacity in comparison to the previous year, but the capacity of vegetables and vegetable garden production was decreased.
| Production | Unit | January–July 2016 | January–July 2015 | Per previous year, % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meat | Thousand ton. | 263.6 | 256.9 | 102.6 | |
| Milk | Thousand ton. | 1168.8 | 1144.8 | 102.1 | |
| Egg | Million | 947.8 | 898.0 | 105.5 | |
| Wool | Thousand ton. | 15.9 | 15.6 | 101.6 | |
| Vegetable | Thousand ton. | 732.7 | 765.4 | 95.7 | |
| Potato | Thousand ton. | 577.2 | 506.8 | 113.9 | |
| Fruits and berries | Thousand ton. | 180.1 | 179.7 | 100.2 | |
| Grape | Thousand ton. | 3.5 | 3.2 | 110.0 | |
| Melon production | Thousand ton. | 343.2 | 356.4 | 96.3 | |
| Cereals and dried pulses | Thousand ton. | 2816.0 | 2783.3 | 101.2 | |
| Sunflower for seed | Thousand ton. | 1.6 | 1.4 | 114.3 | |
| Green tea leaves | Ton. | 608.1 | 363.6 | 167.2 | |
| Tobacco | Thousand ton. | 2.1 | 1.5 | 140.0 | |
| Cocoon | Thousand ton. | 70.7 | 0.236 | 299.6 |
Cultivated area for spring plants, 1000 ha:
| Productions | January–July 2016 | January–July 2015 | Per previous year % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total cultivated area | 1628.9 | 1585.0 | 102.7 | |
| Including: | ||||
| Cereal and dried pulses | 997.5 | 951.6 | 104.8 | |
| Wheat | 590.7 | 539.7 | 109.4 | |
| Barley | 352.4 | 361.0 | 97.6 | |
| Grain maize | 36.0 | 36.9 | 98.9 | |
| Cotton | 51.5 | 18.7 | 2.8 d. | |
| Sunflower for seed | 8.2 | 10.7 | 76.6 | |
| Sugar beets | 7.1 | 4.9 | 144.8 | |
| Tobacco | 2.4 | 1.4 | 171.4 | |
| Potato | 62.8 | 61.0 | 102.9 | |
| Vegetable | 73.6 | 77.1 | 95.4 | |
| Melon production | 26.4 | 27.8 | 94.9 | |
| Annual Grass Crops | 7.9 | 9.8 | 80.6 |
| Product | Unit | Amount | |
| Meat | tons | 265.3 | |
| Milk | tons | 2 080 437 | |
| Egg | Thouthand units | 1 676 213 | |
| Wool | tons | 15,8 | |
| Vegetable | tons | 1 521,9 | |
| Potato | tons | 898 914 | |
| Fruits and berries | tons | 1 010 816,3 | |
| Grape | tons | 167 591,4 | |
| Melon production | tons | 94 668 | |
| Cereals and dried pulses | thsd.tons | 3 309,2 | |
| Sunflower for seed | tons | 23 586 | |
| Green tea leaves | tons | 868,6 | |
| Tobacco | tons | 6,3 | |
| Cocoon | Thsd.tons | 513,9 |
Cultivated area, 2018:
| Product | Total cultivated area (hectares/thousand hectares) | |
| Cereal and dried pulses | 1 083,1 | |
| Wheat | 679,1 | |
| Barley | 19,4 | |
| Grain maize | 31,7 | |
| Cotton | 132,5 | |
| Sunflower for seed | 11 566 | |
| Sugar beets | 8 562 | |
| Tobacco | ? | |
| Potato | 59 318 | |
| Vegetable | 69 499 | |
| Melon production | 20 913 |
The agricultural products with the value of 204,7 million USA dollars was exported between January and July 2016. The export of agricultural products was increased by 29,7% in comparison with previous year.The export of agriculture:
| Productions | January–July2016 | January–July2015 | Per previous year | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weightt | Cost In US$ (thousand) | Weight t | Cost In US$ (thousand) | According to weight | According to cost | ||
| 132978.0 | 101844.2 | 102891.2 | 74497.8 | 129.2 | 136.7 | ||
| Fruit | 44245.9 | 76303.3 | 39442.7 | 62454.4 | 112.2 | 122.2 | |
| Tobacco | 1364.7 | 5464.4 | 885.5 | 3303.9 | 154.1 | 165.4 | |
| 9074.9 | 14500.3 | 5968.0 | 8965.4 | 152.1 | 161.7 | ||
| Leather | 6985.6 | 6296.7 | 5920.2 | 8403.8 | 118.0 | 74.9 | |
| Others | 333.6 | 338.2 | 149.1 | 244.5 | 2.2 d. | 138.3 | |
| Total | 204747.1 | 157869.8 | 129.7 | ||||
The change of wholesale price of agricultural products in July in relation to the previous month price (in manats):
| Vegetables | 30.07.2015 | 29.07.2016 | Difference | Fruits | 30.07.2015 | 29.07.2016 | Difference | |
| Bean | Shamkir | Apple | Summer apple | |||||
| 0.35 | 0.70 | 100.0% | 1.20 | 1.00 | -16.7% | |||
| Cabbage | Aghdash | Cherryplums | colspan="3" | --- | ||||
| 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.0% | 2.00 | 2.00 | 0.0% | |||
| Table carrots | Barda | Pear | Dushes | |||||
| 0.40 | 0.50 | 25.0% | 3.20 | 3.00 | - 6.3% | |||
| Tomato | Baku | Cherry | Xachmaz | |||||
| 0.80 | 0.40 | -50.0% | 3.00 | 3.00 | 0.0% | |||
| Cucumber | Melit | Apricot | Qirmizi yanaq | |||||
| 0.60 | 0.25 | -58.3% | 3.00 | 3.00 | 0.0% | |||
| Onion | Aghdam (Yellow) | Watermelon | Sabirabad | |||||
| 0.50 | 0.38 | -24.0% | 0.20 | 0.15 | -25.0% | |||
| Aghsu | Melon | Sabirabad | ||||||
| 3.50 | 4.00 | 14.3% | 0.70 | 0.30 | -57.1% | |||
| Eggplant | Masalli | Strawberry | Calilabad | |||||
| 0.20 | 0.10 | -50.0% | 1.00 | 1.50 | 50.0% | |||
| Pepper | Green | Chestnut | Local | |||||
| 0.30 | 0.25 | -16.7^%|9.00|8.00|-11.1% | ||||||
| Potato | Shamkir | Hazel-nut | Local | |||||
| 0.50 | 0.60 | 20.0% | 7.00 | 5.00 | -28.6% | |||
| Tovuz | Nut | Local | ||||||
| 0.40 | 0.34 | -15.0% | 6.00 | 5.00 | -16.7% | |||
The change of wholesale price of agricultural products in July 2016 in relation to the previous year price (in manats):
| Vegetables | 30.07.2015 | 29.07.2016 | Difference | Fruits | 30.07.2015 | 29.07.2016 | Difference | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cabbage | Barda | Apple | Summer apple | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0.60 | 0.25 | - 58.3%|0.65|1.00| colspan="2" |53.8%|-| rowspan="4" |Tomato| colspan="3" |Baku| rowspan="2" |Pear| colspan="4" |Dushes|-|0.45|0.40|- 11.1% | 1.60 | 3.00 | 87.5% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shamkir | Watermelon | Sabirabad | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0.45 | 0.30 | - 33.3%|0.25| colspan="2" |0.15|- 40.0%|-| rowspan="2" |Cucumber| colspan="3" |Shamkir| rowspan="2" |Melon| colspan="4" |Sabirabad|-|0.20|0.25|25.0%|0.30|0.30| colspan="2" |0.0%|-| rowspan="2" |Pepper| colspan="3" |Baku/Green| rowspan="2" |Cornelian | 0.70 | 1.50 | 114.3% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Table carrots | Barda | Sloe | colspan="4" | --- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1.20 | 0.50 | - 58.3%|0.40|0.80| colspan="2" |100.0%|-| rowspan="2" |Beetroots| colspan="3" |Barda| rowspan="2" |Strawberry| colspan="4" |Xachmaz|-|0.80|0.40|- 50.0% | 1.20 | 1.50 | 25.0% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eggplant | Barda/Masallı | Cherryplums | colspan="4" | --- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0.25 | 0.10 | - 60.0%|1.50|2.00| colspan="2" |33.3%|-| rowspan="2" |Potato| colspan="3" |Calilabad/Tovuz| rowspan="2" |Peach| colspan="4" |Local|-|0.40|0.34|- 15.0%|1.20|2.00| colspan="2" |66.7%|-| rowspan="2" |Garlic| colspan="3" |Aghsu| rowspan="2" |Apricot| colspan="4" |Local|-|2.50|4.00|60.0%|2.20|3.00| colspan="2" |36.4%|}Governmental support to agricultural industry"Aqrolizinq" OJSC in 2016 provided 1097 agricultural machineries with discounted leasing opportunities to 605 legal entities and individuals. The agricultural machineries provided for leasing (quantity)
The imported and provided to leasing breeding animals (head)
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