The day after Uzbek border guards shot dead two Uzbek men and wounded another to stop them from smuggling cotton into Kyrgyzstan, the government of Uzbekistan announced tough measures to prevent cotton smuggling.

Government announced strict measures against farmers who fail to turn their cotton crop over to the state, as cotton growers increasingly try to evade the government monopoly and sell their produce to better-paying buyers in neighboring countries.

A government decree published in official newspapers said the state had been suffering ``considerable crop losses'' because farmers failed to turn in harvested cotton and tried to smuggle it out of the country.

The decree, which was signed by President Islam Karimov on Oct 13, orders strict measures to ``rescue'' the cotton yield. It said farmers who attempt to hide cotton and take it out of the country, along with officials who fail to prevent such incidents, would face fines or unspecified criminal charges.

The former Soviet republic is the world''s No. 5 cotton exporter, and cotton is its main hard currency earner. Despite reorganizing collective farms after gaining independence in 1991, the government has kept in place the Soviet system of central planning and still sets annual production targets for farmers.

Farmers are forced to sign contracts with state-owned cotton procurement companies at the start of each farming season, agreeing to sell most of their crop to the state in exchange for machinery, fertilizers and gas, which they cannot afford themselves.

The cotton prices paid by the government are far below the market rate and leave farmers virtually without any profit. In recent years,
impoverished farmers have sought ways to sell some of their crop in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The government decree orders the heads of farms and procurement companies to ensure the ``unhindered and uninterrupted'' supply of cotton and local officials to step up propaganda on the issue.