Tobacco growing shrinking in Kyrgyzstan

This year, Kyrgyzstan will reduce the area under tobacco by 500 ha, according to a Times of Central Asia story.

The Times was relaying a KyrTAG news agency report citing Jumabek Asylbekov, head of the food security and agro-marketing department at Kyrgyzstan’s Agriculture Ministry.

“The area under tobacco shrinks every year,” said Asylbekov, who added that the total area under tobacco in Kyrgyzstan today was 3,000 ha.

The ministry says it is keen to introduce a mechanized harvesting system to Kyrgyz tobacco fields.

“Tobacco growing is a profitable business, but it requires hard manual labor that is detrimental to health,” said Asylbekov. “So it is necessary to mechanize tobacco harvesting.”

The ministry has apparently developed a mechanized-harvesting concept and is now looking for investors to take the concept forward.

Meanwhile, the Times story quoted Asylbek Toktogulov, chairman of the Trade Unions Federation of Kyrgyzstan, as saying that last year about 4,000 children and young people aged between six and 18 were relieved from having to work in tobacco fields in Kyrgyzstan.