Little Cheer at Turkmen Harvest Festival

Like much of the nation, Turkmenistan’s farmers turned out for the government-sponsored Harvest Festival, but they had little reason to celebrate.

The farmers say massive mismanagement of the agricultural sector by President Saparmurat Niyazov has left them struggling to feed themselves and their families.

Impossible production targets from Ashgabat means they must plant worn-out land with wheat on the orders of Niyazov, known as Turkmenbashi, the “Leader of the Turkmen”.

“We are ordered what to sow and how much,” said farmer Mered-Aga. “They give us unrealistic plans…. We don’t let the land recover, as every year the presidential demands for the harvest increase, and we have to sow all the land we have with wheat.”

Turkmenistan traditionally imported grain, but the authorities claim it has been self-sufficient since 2002 and could soon become a major regional exporter.

Officially, the grain harvest gets better year after year, with the president setting new record targets and duly announcing that they have been achieved. Immediately after last year’s total of 2.8 million tonnes was announced, a new target of 3.1 million tonnes was set for 2005.

On July 11, four days before the harvest festival, Turkmenbashi said the figure had been achieved. The government has indicated that once the country’s own needs have been met there will still be a massive surplus of 1.4 million tonnes, which could be sold abroad.

It is unclear whether Turkmenistan has harvested anything like three million tonnes. Last year, officials said in private that the true figure fell far short of the official one, and the country was still importing grain.

On paper, Turkmenistan has shifted away from the Soviet system of government-run collective farms to farmers’ associations, where people lease land from the state. But in reality the farmers remain beholden to the government, and are not only forced to grow wheat, but have to ensure that they meet a set quota to make up the harvest figures.

The former head of one of the farmers’ associations told IWPR, on condition of anonymity, how the position he held is central to the way the system works, “The farmer’s association head is personally accountable for fulfilling obligations to the state. That means he’s responsible for the harvest - or its failure. If a certain plan is assigned to the association, but bad weather or other reasons mean that the amount gathered comes in under the state plan, the head will answer for it.”

The result is, he says, that managers end up telling lies about the figures to avoid punishment.

The farmers themselves are left with little income, because the state monopoly grain buyer sets such low prices.

Mered-Aga said he received 300 US dollars for his grain - insufficient to keep his family going until next year’s harvest. “The money we get for the grain we sell them [the state] is not enough to cover the costs of growing it [and] buying fertiliser and grain seed for the following year.

“We don’t even have the right to keep back some of the harvest to use sow the fields next spring. Not to mention that we don’t have the right to keep grain for our own needs. Everything goes to the state. Our granaries are checked to ensure we are not hiding grain.”

The Soviet-style controls over their activities also mean that farmers are prevented from growing anything to feed their families. Growing potatoes or onions is impossible, they say, as the authorities shut off irrigation water to fields growing unsanctioned crops.

“By growing grain, we go without grain ourselves,” concluded Mered-Aga.

Farmers also complain that over-use of the soil to meet ever-increasing targets is degrading the quality of the wheat produced. In Soviet times, Mered-Aga recalled, every third year a field was rotated out of use, and planted with alfalfa and fertilised with nitrogen to allow the soil to recover.

The targets are also difficult to meet as much of the work is done by hand. Turkmenistan has bought United States-made tractors, but when they break down there are no spare parts to repair them.

“We used to use tractors from the Minsk Tractor Factory,” said one farmer. “They’re tougher and it’s easy to find spare parts for them – you can get them off old tractors left over from Soviet times.”

“So the old equipment stands idle, and we have to gather the harvest by hand.”

A transport ministry employee, who asked not to be named, agreed there was no point in the government continuing to buy new tractors every year, “It would be better to build servicing stations in the provinces and fix those tractors already purchased which have since broken down.”