Government to Repossess Unused Land
Government to Repossess Unused Land
Thousands of hectares of land distributed by the Tajik authorities a decade ago may be repossessed because farmers do not have the resources to manage it.
At a cabinet meeting on September 15, President Imonali Rahmon was sharply critical of the misuse of the so-called “presidential lands”, and ordered the confiscation of any plots which have not been used for the past two years.
The term “presidential land” refers to fertile areas taken from the Soviet-era state (“sovkhoz”) and collective (“kolkhoz”) farms which were broken up after independence in 1991 and distributed for use by the new breed of private smallholders. In two rounds, in 1995 and 1997, some 75,000 hectares of arable land was handed out on the president’s instructions, the aim being to alleviate food shortages and the effects of Tajikistan’s 1992-97 civil war.
Presidential land is managed by the “jamoat”, the lowest rung of local government, and is exempt from all levies except land tax. It can only be used for agricultural production, and not for building.
In his latest remarks, President Rahmon did not elaborate on how the land was being misused, but observers in Tajikistan note that it is frequently used to build homes.
NBCentralAsia analysts say the reason why land is not being used productively is that farmers do not know how to farm it and local government has failed to check on what is happening to it.
According to deputy agriculture minister Shuhrat Sirojiddinov, the presidential lands yielded some good results when they were first distributed, but many of the fields have since been left fallow as they are unprofitable to work, and often located far from the villages where farmers live.
Economist Hojimuhammad Umarov blames the underuse of land on a lack of farm machinery and other resources, obsolete farming skills, and mass migration to urban areas and abroad.
“The sector has the lowest pay and does not encourage workers to be very productive,” he explained.
Mahmud Khabirov, deputy director of the government agency in charge of land management, agrees that poor skills and a failure to maintain land are major problems.
“There are cases where rain-fed land is used year after year for the same crop without rotation, which reduces yields,” he said.
Of the 75,000 hectares of land distributed in the Nineties, 9,000 have been already reverted to the state because they were not being farmed.
Khabirov says that the government should launch an information campaign on intensive farming methods, and then ensure that local government is acting to make sure the land is being used properly.
Sirojiddinov adds that the old way of managing agriculture by means of bureaucratic instructions needs to end, and in its place farmers should be given better access to bank loans and markets for their products.
(NBCentralAsia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region)
At a cabinet meeting on September 15, President Imonali Rahmon was sharply critical of the misuse of the so-called “presidential lands”, and ordered the confiscation of any plots which have not been used for the past two years.
The term “presidential land” refers to fertile areas taken from the Soviet-era state (“sovkhoz”) and collective (“kolkhoz”) farms which were broken up after independence in 1991 and distributed for use by the new breed of private smallholders. In two rounds, in 1995 and 1997, some 75,000 hectares of arable land was handed out on the president’s instructions, the aim being to alleviate food shortages and the effects of Tajikistan’s 1992-97 civil war.
Presidential land is managed by the “jamoat”, the lowest rung of local government, and is exempt from all levies except land tax. It can only be used for agricultural production, and not for building.
In his latest remarks, President Rahmon did not elaborate on how the land was being misused, but observers in Tajikistan note that it is frequently used to build homes.
NBCentralAsia analysts say the reason why land is not being used productively is that farmers do not know how to farm it and local government has failed to check on what is happening to it.
According to deputy agriculture minister Shuhrat Sirojiddinov, the presidential lands yielded some good results when they were first distributed, but many of the fields have since been left fallow as they are unprofitable to work, and often located far from the villages where farmers live.
Economist Hojimuhammad Umarov blames the underuse of land on a lack of farm machinery and other resources, obsolete farming skills, and mass migration to urban areas and abroad.
“The sector has the lowest pay and does not encourage workers to be very productive,” he explained.
Mahmud Khabirov, deputy director of the government agency in charge of land management, agrees that poor skills and a failure to maintain land are major problems.
“There are cases where rain-fed land is used year after year for the same crop without rotation, which reduces yields,” he said.
Of the 75,000 hectares of land distributed in the Nineties, 9,000 have been already reverted to the state because they were not being farmed.
Khabirov says that the government should launch an information campaign on intensive farming methods, and then ensure that local government is acting to make sure the land is being used properly.
Sirojiddinov adds that the old way of managing agriculture by means of bureaucratic instructions needs to end, and in its place farmers should be given better access to bank loans and markets for their products.
(NBCentralAsia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region)
