JAPAN ASSISTS UZBEKISTAN’S TRANSITION FROM COTTON MONOCULTURE TO FOOD PRODUCTION.

Japan has granted 470 million yen (some US$3.8 million) in support of Uzbekistan’s program to increase food production. Tashkent had requested the grant-in-aid in order to purchase Japanese agricultural machinery so as to increase Uzbekistan’s output of rice and wheat. Uzbekistan aims for self-sufficiency in those crops and also in a range of other agricultural products. The current self-sufficiency rate for rice and grains overall stands at 70 percent–a marked increase over the 1991 level. This program is the centerpiece of the country’s effort to overcome the cotton monoculture, which had been imposed on Uzbekistan by Moscow planners, with destructive economic and ecological consequences. Agricultural productivity remains low, and the modernization program necessitates substantial foreign aid (Kyodo, June 22).

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