As the Ministry of Agriculture, our main goal in the State Program is to achieve higher value-added product production per hectare.
This was stated by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Zaur Aliyev in response to Modern.az's question about wheat production at a press conference held on the implementation of the instructions of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a meeting dedicated to agricultural issues and on issues arising from the State Program for 2026–2030.
The Deputy Minister noted that wheat and other grain crops have a large share in the structure of the country's crop production:
“I would mention the failure to reach the desired level of productivity as a major challenge rather than an obstacle to increasing wheat production. There are several objective reasons for this. First of all, there is a need to expand the areas for the application of modern irrigation systems. As the coverage of modern irrigation technologies and on-farm irrigation networks in grain crops increases, productivity will also rise proportionally.”
Z. Aliyev also emphasized that currently there are approximately 900 thousand hectares of grain sown areas in the country:
“Approximately 400-450 thousand hectares of this are sown with wheat. 300-400 thousand hectares of grain areas are under rainfed conditions, and it is not possible to establish irrigation networks in these areas. There is potential for the application of modern irrigation systems in the remaining 400-500 thousand hectares.
However, it should be noted that the establishment of modern irrigation systems requires both large investments and is a time-consuming process. In this direction, the creation of main canals, secondary canals, and other water infrastructure is important.”
According to the Deputy Minister, the overall goal is to increase wheat production and raise the country's self-sufficiency level by improving irrigation systems:
“The State Program aims to increase this indicator from the current 55 percent to 66 percent. As a result of the expansion of areas provided with modern irrigation, it will be possible to achieve the set targets for both the volume and quality of the product.
In this regard, one of the main challenges is precisely the formation and widespread application of modern irrigation systems,” Z. Aliyev noted.
