Uneconomic Farming in Tajikistan

Small-scale farmers in Tajikistan are facing spiralling running costs, as they are charged high prices for everything from irrigation water to the use of farm machinery. 

Farmers and experts alike say imposing tough market economy rules where everything has its price is unfair for an impoverished rural population.

“If 47 per cent of the population of Khatlon region [southern Tajikistan] is living below the poverty line [income of two US dollars a day], and 40 per cent is in extreme poverty, how can these farmers and villagers pay for water supplies, ploughing, and land taxes? Where are they supposed to get the money?” Rayhon Karimova, an NGO activist from Kabodiyon in southern Tajikistan, asked.

Some hope is offered by foreign donor-funded projects like one in Khatlon’s Shaartuz district, where locals are being paid a wage to clear irrigation canals. But the overall trend continues to be mass emigration from rural areas, mainly to Russia, in search of seasonal work.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.