Farmers Pay High Price for Bumper Crop
Farmers Pay High Price for Bumper Crop
Despite reports that Uzbekistan reaped a bumper harvest this year, NBCentralAsia local observers say that the grain is of poor quality and farmers came under inordinate pressure to meet government-set targets.
In mid-July, President Islam Karimov congratulated farmers on a record harvest of 6.25 million tons of grain, a figure which not only exceeded last year’s, but even surpassed the target set for 2007. According to official sources, the average yield was 4.8 tons per hectare.
Production has risen steadily since the poor harvests of the early Nineties, when the yield was just 1.2 tons per hectare. But even in the last two years, yields have not exceeded 4.3 tons per hectare.
NBCentralAsia observers say that while expanding wheat production helps Uzbekistan meet its domestic needs without the need to import so much, there are still question-marks over whether striving for record harvests makes sense.
Komron Aliev, an observer based in Tashkent, says there is no debate at all in Uzbekistan on how feasible it is to grow “low quality” grain across vast areas. He argues that it might be more profitable to concentrate on sugarbeet, groundnuts or other crops.
Other commentators say this record harvest has come at the cost of enormous government pressure on farmers to meet their targets.
The head of a large farm in the Fergana Valley says that the government’s emphasis on bumper harvests mean that farmers have to work much harder for their meager return.
The state pays farmers just 118 soms, or about 10 US cents, for one kilogram of wheat even though the market price is 550 sums, or 40 cents. The producers are effectively giving the crop away.
Even though the harvest was so good this year, the authorities are worried that it might not be so good in 2008 so they have banned some farmers from sowing other crops in their fields once the grain has been reaped.
Local authorities use the police to keep watch on the fields, and prosecutors force farmers to comply, said the farm boss.
“Many farmers are sick of this [coercion], as they are prevented from doing their own work,” he said.
But if they refuse to work, they will have to hand their rented land back to the state.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
In mid-July, President Islam Karimov congratulated farmers on a record harvest of 6.25 million tons of grain, a figure which not only exceeded last year’s, but even surpassed the target set for 2007. According to official sources, the average yield was 4.8 tons per hectare.
Production has risen steadily since the poor harvests of the early Nineties, when the yield was just 1.2 tons per hectare. But even in the last two years, yields have not exceeded 4.3 tons per hectare.
NBCentralAsia observers say that while expanding wheat production helps Uzbekistan meet its domestic needs without the need to import so much, there are still question-marks over whether striving for record harvests makes sense.
Komron Aliev, an observer based in Tashkent, says there is no debate at all in Uzbekistan on how feasible it is to grow “low quality” grain across vast areas. He argues that it might be more profitable to concentrate on sugarbeet, groundnuts or other crops.
Other commentators say this record harvest has come at the cost of enormous government pressure on farmers to meet their targets.
The head of a large farm in the Fergana Valley says that the government’s emphasis on bumper harvests mean that farmers have to work much harder for their meager return.
The state pays farmers just 118 soms, or about 10 US cents, for one kilogram of wheat even though the market price is 550 sums, or 40 cents. The producers are effectively giving the crop away.
Even though the harvest was so good this year, the authorities are worried that it might not be so good in 2008 so they have banned some farmers from sowing other crops in their fields once the grain has been reaped.
Local authorities use the police to keep watch on the fields, and prosecutors force farmers to comply, said the farm boss.
“Many farmers are sick of this [coercion], as they are prevented from doing their own work,” he said.
But if they refuse to work, they will have to hand their rented land back to the state.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
