Kazakh cotton farmers test new disease-resistant variety Maktaaral-5030Cotton growers in Kazakhstan have successfully tested a new disease-resistant variety of cotton, Maktaaral-5030, which is expected to be patented later this year, the Ministry of Agriculture said in a Tuesday press release.The new variety demonstrated strong agronomic potential. It has a growing season of 110–115 days, with a raw cotton yield of 4.35 tonnes per hectare. Each boll produces about 6.1 to 6.2 grams of raw cotton, while the fiber yield is 39.7%, with a fiber length of 33.5 millimeters. The micronaire value, which is an indicator of fiber quality, was measured at 4.5, meeting industry standards for textile manufacturing, according to the press release.Maktaaral-5030 also showed high resistance to wilt diseases caused by bacterial infections. During trials, infection levels were recorded at just 0.1%, compared to more than 0.4% in the standard Bereke-07 variety.In May this year, the Agriculture Ministry reported the development of another high-yielding, early-maturing variety of cotton, Maktaaral-5027, which is already being introduced at farms and enterprises in the Turkistan region.According to the ministry, Kazakhstan's total cotton planting area in 2025 stands at 135,000 hectares.Turkistan is the country’s only region engaged in cotton cultivation and processing. The region hosts 23 cotton processing plants, collectively producing over 100,000 tonnes of cotton fiber annually. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX