Feezing cold may affect agricultural products prices

Worsened weather conditions in recent days in Azerbaijan, have both positive and negative effects on agricultural production in the country, the Head of Department for control over the production and processing of crop products at the Ministry of Agriculture Sabir Veliyev told Trend on Wednesday.

According to Veliyev, the weather creates a high humidity in the ground, which is especially useful for plants that suffered from drought for a long period. "High moisture feeds the root system of plants, mineral salts and fertilizers are absorbed quicker," Veliyev said.

In addition, the relatively high snow pack has the effect of "mattress" on annual plants, especially on forage and grain, he added. This is useful because it builds up heat and the temperature under the snow is above zero.

Another positive result of this weather is that pathogens of plants are being destroyed under the current weather conditions, especially pathogens of fruit trees.

"If earlier in the winter we were working on disinfection of grape and fruit gardens, now they are limited," Veliyev said.

Fruit buds at the temperature below 15 can freeze in the northern districts - Quba, Khachmaz, Shaki, and Zakatala. This is a negative impact of cold weather, he added.
"This is possible in the districts. If buds of fruit trees froze, it will eventually decrease crop yield, so the prices will rise during the ripening of fruits - in spring and in summer," Veliyev said.

As soon as the weather improves, the Agriculture Ministry will conduct tests to determine the rate of destroyed fruit buds and count the damage effects. "However, there are methods that can recover the harvest to some extent and we are using them," Veliyev added.


/Trend/