Azerbaijan has 1.485 million hectares of irrigated land, with 8.1% (or 120,551 hectares) equipped with modern irrigation systems this year alone, said Firudin Taghiyev, the head of the Land Use Control Department at Azerbaijan’s Agriculture Ministry, Report informs.

Taghiyev made the remark at the event titled “The Role of Water Management Systems in Climate-Resilient Agriculture: COP29 Roundtable Discussions,” Report informs.

He mentioned that even though the year is not over, the area equipped with modern irrigation systems this year has already exceeded last year’s indicator (119,500 hectares in 2023).

"Currently, 61,222 hectares of land in Azerbaijan are equipped with pivot irrigation."

The official pointed out that last year, 19.3 million manats (over $11.3 million) in subsidies were allocated to modernize irrigation on 8,349 hectares of land using state funds.

“Meanwhile, in the first half of 2024 alone, 4.1 million manats (just over $2.4 million) were allocated to equip 1,886 hectares with modern irrigation systems,” he said.

Taghiyev believes that implementing modern irrigation systems can boost the productivity of agricultural crops by 2-3 times without needing to expand the cultivated areas.