Turkmen Farmers to Get Higher Prices
Turkmen Farmers to Get Higher Prices
The price rise was announced by President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov at a January 15 cabinet meeting, as part of a decree on agricultural reform. The state, which has a monopoly over grain purchases, will increase the rates it pays farmers in phases – in 2009 it will pay between 270 and 320 manats a ton, 95 to 112 dollars a ton at the current exchange rate, a substantial increase on last year’s 64 dollars. In 2010, the price will rise to 400 manats a ton.
An official from the Ministry of Economy and Development said the aim was to encourage farmers to produce more grain, and the measure would be more cost-effective than paying world prices for imported wheat.
“Berdymuhammedov took the right decision here,” said the official.
According to independent estimates, Turkmenistan needs about 2.5 million tons of grain every year. Because of the arid climate, most of the wheat grown in Turkmenistan is suitable only for animal fodder, and yields are low. As a result, the country has to import more than 50 per cent of its wheat from Russia and Kazakstan.
The government sets production targets for farmers every year, but these are unrealistic and are never met. In 2008, the wheat target was set at 1.8 million tons. No figure has been released for actual production, and officials have confined themselves to saying the harvest was “adequate”.
NBCentral Asia experts estimate that last year’s harvest came in at under a million tons, and that this has prompted the authorities to seek for ways to improve the situation.
(For a report on the predicted 2008 shortfall, see Analysts Predict Grain Shortfall, NBCentralAsia 25 Jul-08.)
“The increase in the purchase price for wheat is mainly a consequence of the current shortage of bread,” said a commentator in the northern province of Dashoguz.
NBCentral Asia experts they note that availability of high-quality flour and bread sold at prices fixed by the government continues to be erratic, and argue that raising the purchase price is not going to turn this situation round.
“State purchase prices have been raised twice in recent years, but it’s had little effect on wheat production”, said an expert working for the agriculture ministry.
Farmers appear equally sceptical about the new policy, noting that this year’s price is still well below the true market rate. They say that other aspects of government control – the state’s compulsory planning and purchase system, and heavy-handed administration of the farming sector – remain in place, and hold the sector back.
“It would be much better if the state introduced private land ownership for farmers, and then require them to sell 2.5 tons of wheat per hectare to the state at a fixed price, and dispose of any surplus the remaining harvest for their own purposes,” a farmer from Kaakh district, in the Ahal region of central Turkmenistan. “That would be an incentive for farmers to increase wheat production”.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
