Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on 20 December on ensuring food security, including through the development of one of the important industries - fish farming, increasing the efficiency of fish procurement based on cooperation.

At the beginning of the meeting, the head of our state drew attention to the remaining problematic issues in the field of ensuring food security, despite the solution of financial issues and the creation of all opportunities for food supply of the population. It is indicated that the issues of eliminating these shortcomings, the formation of sufficient food supplies in the entrusted territory and ensuring price stability should be in the center of attention of khokims of all levels.

Over the past five years, as a result of the implementation of 1,016 projects worth 2.2 trillion soums in the fishing industry of the country, the volume of fish procurement has increased 6 times and this year will reach 400 thousand tons. Compared to 2016, fish consumption increased 5.7 times.

- The global rise in food prices, inflationary risks clearly indicate that food security will remain the most pressing issue in the next year. Therefore, the khokims of the regions should analyze the state of fish farming in their region and systematically work to create all conditions for entrepreneurs and households, the President said.

It was noted at the meeting that these indicators are not enough, the existing opportunities are not being fully utilized.

So, in Navoi, Namangan, Syrdarya, Ferghana and Tashkent regions, the productivity of fish farming is only 3-4 tons per hectare. This is due to the fact that the volume of intensive fish farming in these regions does not exceed 10 percent of the total production.

In this regard, the issues of intensification of artificial reservoirs, the development of clusters and cooperation in the industry are considered. The task has been set to bring fish production up to 600 thousand tons next year.

To this end, next year, based on the experience of the Sharaf-Rashidov district, intensive fish farming will be launched in 10 thousand households. Clusters growing more than 80 tons of fish per year on the basis of cooperation will be exempt from taxes for a period of three years. Clusters that have attracted foreign specialists will be reimbursed for part of their costs.

The volume of loans allocated to domestic fish suppliers under the Every Family is an Entrepreneur program will be doubled, and next year 400 billion soums and 20 million dollars will be allocated for this purpose.

The land and property tax rates for fish farming household owners will be reduced by 50 percent and they will be self-employed.

An order was given to conduct an experiment to train the population in fish farming in Yangiyul and Kuyichirchik districts, and to introduce its results in Navoi, Syrdarya and Ferghana regions from June 1 next year.

Also, it is planned to attract 20 million euros for large projects in the field of fish farming.

The need was emphasized to increase the productivity of 21 thousand hectares of low-yielding artificial reservoirs and to procure an additional 190 thousand tons of fish in them. For this purpose, instructions were given to equip 2.2 thousand farms with 50 thousand aerators.

Responsible persons were instructed to use these opportunities to increase the number of new projects and increase production in order to ensure job creation and saturation of the domestic market with fish products.

The leaders of the industry and regions reported on the work done in the fishing industry and reported on their plans for 2022.