KULOB, April 21, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Over the first three months of this year, branches of banks and microcredit organizations operating in Khatlon’s Kulob region have provided 36,900,970 somoni in loans to local enterprises and farming units, Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, remarked at a news conference in Kulob on April 20.

“18,325,502 somoni, or nearly 50 percent of the overall amount of loans, have gone to supporting enhancement of the agrarian sector,” said Nematov, “5,684,364 somoni have been provided to local cotton-growing farms and 4,871,025 somoni have been provided to grain producing farms.”

He added that five cotton producing districts in the Kulob region have increased areas under cotton by 5,417 hectares this year.  This year, 32,200 hectares of lands in Kulob have been allocated to cotton cultivation.