BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 25. Over the past five
years, there has been a decline in livestock numbers, yet there has
been an increase in meat production and per capita meat
consumption, Azerbaijan's Minister of Agriculture, Majnun Mammadov,
said at a meeting on agricultural issues chaired by President Ilham
Aliyev, Trend
reports.
The minister noted that, unfortunately, growing meat production
has been unable to meet rising consumption, leading to an increase
in meat imports in recent years.
“One of the main challenges facing this sector is productivity.
In livestock farming, productivity is currently below the desired
level. At the same time, purebred animals account for only 2.5% of
the herd. Unfortunately, this prevents us from significantly
increasing productivity.
As in the crop production sector, we also see in livestock
farming that extensive farms have already exhausted their potential
for growth in both milk and meat production. “Over the past five
years, the main growth has been driven precisely by intensive
farms. However, their number in Azerbaijan today is small, and we
need to increase it,” Mammadov noted.
