Bad weather has put an end to Uzbekistan\'s annual cotton harvest and, according to preliminary data from the country\'s Agriculture Ministry, only 2.856 million tons of cotton was gathered this year. The independent news agency zamon.info reported on 23 November that this is the poorest harvest in many years. The government planned a harvest of 3.6 million tons and took extraordinary measures to prevent cotton harvested in Uzbekistan from being smuggled by Uzbek pickers into Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where prices being paid for raw cotton were much higher. Cotton specialists at the Uzbek Academy of Sciences attributed the 2003 cotton shortfall to spring rains that necessitated the replanting of one-third of the land sown to cotton and delayed the harvest by three weeks. The report noted that international financial agencies say the government monopoly on the export of cotton deprives Uzbek growers of incentive to produce. (RFE/RL)