Ilham Aliyev: It may take 5-10 years to revive these lands

A few days ago I was at an agricultural exhibition. There I was also interested in this issue, because after the liberation of lands from occupation, one of the first instructions was to return these lands to the crop rotation.

President Ilham Aliyev stated this on May 9 during a conversation with the residents of the village of Shukurbeyli, Jabrayil district.

"Every time, every year after the sowing and harvesting season, I receive a report and look at how grain farming is developing. Across the country it is developing well, if we speak in the old terminology, approximately 35 centners per hectare, in fact - 3.5 tons. I ask how much it is in Karabakh - very little. And the question arises: why? After all, here, as you yourselves well know, the land is very fertile, very productive. Now I am being given explanations - including by foreign specialists - that the Armenians depleted this land to such an extent, exploited it so haphazardly that it may take 5-10 years to revive these lands. Therefore, just as they plundered and exploited all our natural resources, they actually brought our land into an extremely deplorable state as well. So now it is necessary to revive these lands based on modern agrotechnical measures, modern irrigation systems, and our overall strategy for agricultural development. After all, you know very well that many regions of Azerbaijan have fertile lands, including Karabakh and East Zangezur. You probably remember the viticulture here during the Soviet era," the head of state said.