Tajik Agriculture Urged to Diversify

Even though donor organisations in Tajikistan have proposed new measures to diversify agriculture, the country is unlikely to move away from its dependency on cotton, say NBCentral Asia observers.



On February 7, donors including the International Monetary Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Oxfam recommended that Tajikistan should grow more pulses, oil-bearing crops, fruit and vegetables to supplement cotton.



Political observer Khodi Abdujabbor supports attempts to get the country away from its monoculture reliance, not least because the population is growing rapidly while the amount of available farmland remains the same.



“Large areas used for growing cotton don’t leave any room left for growing other crops. The question arises whether it is possible to use land more effectively in order to provide enough food supplies for the country’s population,” said Abdujabbor.



A senior official in the agriculture ministry told NBCentralAsia that Tajikistan is already implementing a plan to turn cotton fields into grain, fruit and vegetable crops. Last year, the area under cotton was reduced by 41,000 hectares and the plan is to reduce it by a further 26,000 hectares this year.



Tajikistan imports around 400,000 tons of grain annually but would prefer to become self-sufficient, so the former cotton fields will be used to grow grain, the official said. But he insisted cotton would remain as important as ever, and that production should actually increase through better yields.



Economist Hojimuhammad Umarov says cotton accounts for the lion’s share of agricultural exports and is irreplaceable, even though both yields and cultivation area have been shrinking. He said the industry would revive if the right steps were taken to regulate farming and processing while branching out to produce manufactured items such as clothing and yarn.



Most cotton farmers are dependent on advance loans from private firms, with their next crop as collateral. Tajikistan’s farmers are currently over 300 million US dollars in debt to these so-called “futures companies”.



Nuriddin Kaumov, director of the Institute for Economic Studies, which is linked to the ministry for economic development and trade, agrees that cotton remains a strategic resource. He recommends making it easier for cotton farmers to access funds such as soft loans issued directly by the banks, avoiding the middle-man.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)