Uzbekistan to ensure population’s employment by distributing livestock and poultry 

Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a videoconference meeting on February 16 to support the livestock sector and increase meat, milk and egg production through the widespread use of advanced technologies in the industry. Sherzod Asadov, the presidential spokesman, said that at the meeting, it had been instructed to establish a practice of distributing livestock and poultry to ensure population’s employment.

It was reported that the meeting set the task to increase the number of livestock through cooperation and demonstrated exemplary practices:

• the experience of Mirishkor, which, in collaboration with the assistant khokim and the farmer, distributed cattle, sheep and goats to the population, and purchased produced milk and meat;
• the experience of Chust, which distributed 2-3 pedigree cattle to the population, provided free veterinary services, established hydroponic fodder production, and Balikchi, which raised up to 20 breeds of cattle in households with limited land resources.

To expand these practices, foreign loans will be provided for a period of 10 years with a grace period of 3 years, compensation for more than 14% and a guarantee of 50% of the loan, 20% of the cost of purchasing equipment for growing hydroponics.

The experience of Takhiatash, where the poultry farm distributed 50-100 heads of poultry and incubators to the population, purchased thousands of eggs and started breeding birds, is particularly noteworthy.

Based on these experiences, officials were given the following tasks:

• establishing the Mirishkor experience in at least 5 mahallas in each district by March 15;
• introducing the Chust and Balikchi experiments in all districts through land service enterprises by May 1 and allocate 300 billion soums for this within the framework of family business programs;
• launching at least 2 projects in each region by June 1, based on the experience of Takhiatash;
• organizing the distribution of pedigree livestock to at least 2,000 households in each region by September 1.

In general, based on the above 3 experiences, the regional khokims will be personally responsible for the employment of a total of 200 thousand people in 2022.

350,000 head of sheep and goats will be distributed

The issue of providing the population with pets was also discussed at the meeting.

It was noted that the meeting instructed to start the distribution of 350,000 sheep and goats to the population on a cooperative basis within 10 days. $100 million will be allocated for this purpose. The sectorial officials together with khokims of the regions and districts have been tasked to start the work on the establishment of 67 large sheep and goat farms within a week.

It is stipulated that the regional khokims will provide employment to 150,000 people in 2022 through the development of the karakul, sheep, goat and wool industries. By the end of the year, it is planned to launch 123 major projects and establish at least 500 livestock complexes in each cluster.

An example is the Gurlan Baraka Tex cluster in Gurlan, which has established crop rotation on 500 hectares, and in 2021 launched a large livestock complex with a population of 1,000. It plans to produce 400 tons of meat and 1,500 tons of milk by the end of 2022.