The share of cotton harvesting by machine in Uzbekistan will reach 70 percent.
The President reviewed a presentation on providing agriculture with specialized equipment.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed a presentation on providing agriculture with specialized machinery and widely introducing digital technologies into the sector.
Currently, the level of mechanization in agriculture stands at 81 percent. In particular, in recent years, 1,756 cotton harvesters were purchased, raising the mechanization level of cotton harvesting to 52 percent. Last season, 2.1 million tons of cotton were harvested by machine. As a result, manual labor decreased by 1.8 times over the next five years.
The next task is to increase the share of machine-harvested cotton to at least 70 percent. For this purpose, it is planned to purchase 800 cotton harvesters in 2026, as well as 6,000 seeders, tractors, and combines. Overall, it is envisaged that 10,000 new machines will be purchased during the year, bringing the agricultural machinery fleet to 292,000 units.
To lease new machinery to farmers on favorable terms, $400 million will be attracted from international financial institutions. Machinery will be provided in the national currency for 10 years at an 18 percent rate with a 2-year grace period, and 8 percent of the credit rate will be covered from the budget.
The presentation emphasized that developing agricultural machinery manufacturing in the country and expanding local production and service is a priority task.
It was noted that it is important to increase the volume of locally produced machinery and equipment by 5 times and raise the localization level by an additional 10 percent in 2026-2028. Specifically, it is planned to increase production to 6,000 units by 2026, and by 2028, raise the localization indicator to 30-35 percent for self-propelled machinery and 60-65 percent for mounted and trailed equipment.
The current system of subsidizing the purchase of machinery and equipment is applied to machinery with a localization level above 25 percent. The presentation proposed introducing subsidies for 3 types of imported machinery in high demand. Overall, it is planned to allocate 660 billion soums in subsidies this year to cover 15 percent of the machinery cost.
The presentation also reviewed measures to rehabilitate and support the activities of the Tashkent Tractor Plant.
Work on introducing modern banking services in the sector and implementing solutions based on digital technologies and artificial intelligence was also presented.
While 1.6 trillion soums in loans were allocated for agricultural machinery by "Agrobank" JSCB in 2025, it is planned to increase this indicator to 3.9 trillion soums this year. As a result of automating lending processes, the loan allocation period is expected to be reduced from 3 days to 3 hours.
Furthermore, comprehensive agricultural services will be provided to clients. For this, one agro-service zone will be established in each region, where an agricultural agent will operate. In these zones, farmers will be able to use banking, consulting, monitoring, soil analysis, seedling delivery services, receive agronomic advice, and obtain information about training courses all in one place.
The bank's plans to implement pilot projects on using artificial intelligence in livestock and horticulture, "smart" water consumption management, and establishing a new venture company with an authorized capital of 100 billion soums to finance startups in agriculture were also reviewed.
The head of state approved the proposals and gave a number of instructions to officials on further increasing the level of mechanization in agriculture, developing local production and service, and improving monitoring and financial services through digital platforms.
