The government of Russia’s Dagestan Republic, one of 83 federal subjects of Russia, is planning to implement an investment project for growing cotton in the region as well as for processing cotton.

According to a statement issued by Dagestan government, the deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan Abusupyan Harharova, conducted a meeting recently with several other officials including Agriculture Minister Battal Battalov , Minister of Trade , Investment and Enterprise Umavov Yusuf  and chairman of the people's assembly of Dagestan on agrarian policy Dzhaparbeg Shamkhalov, in order to implement the project ‘Cotton’ in the region.

Dagestan Prime Minister Abusupyan Harharova said that as an experiment, cotton was planted on 4 hectares of land of Dagestan, and despite several difficulties the harvest was good and the government is convinced that cotton can be grown in the region and could be profitable.

With the aim of introducing cotton production in the region the government has called on a candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Nikolai Fursov, who would be heading the ‘Cotton’ project in the region, he added.

At the meeting, Mr. Fursov said that Dagestan would require investing at least 110 million rubles (approx. US$3.12 million), in order to acquire the technology to accelerate cotton cultivation in the region, to harvest around 35 quintals of cotton per hectare.

These funds could be used to purchase the necessary equipments for conducting farming activities in the region, he added.