DUSHANBE, January 31, Asia-Plus – Afghanistan has officially agreed that 3,000 hectares of disputed land along the Panj River belongs to Tajikistan, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Serice reported on January 30.

Heavy floods in 2005 changed the river''s course, leaving several Tajik cotton fields on the opposite bank.

Khoujamurod Fazliddinov, the governor of Hamadoni district in Tajikistan''s Khatlon region, told RFE/RL''s Tajik Service that a joint Tajik-Afghan commission had been studying the disputed land and reached the agreement on January 30.

Border signs will be restored in the near future, and local farmers will be able to plant cotton for the first time in three years.