Uzbekistan Legalises Farm Collectivisation

Uzbekistan has approved legislative changes requiring private farms to merge into larger units.

The forcible consolidations have been going on for a year, after President Islam Karimov set up a special committee to drive this reform, but there are fears that the merger process will accelerate now that the Uzbek parliament has amended the Land Code and the law on farms.

Although farmers in Uzbekistan are private operators, they remain beholden to government because they hold their land on a long lease from the state. Thus, when national government decides that larger farms are more economical, it simply orders everyone to comply.

The new rules set out in law stipulate that the minimum size of a farm is ten hectares for fruit and vegetable growers, and 30 hectares for those growing cotton and grains.

To create farms of the right size, smaller units will be joined together, also incorporating some state-owned and unclaimed land. The government believes this will create greater efficiencies and higher crop yields.

"The concept is right," said an agriculture ministry official, who did not want to be named. "It’s true that the market would over time determine the size of farms, depending on the capacity of each farmer. But in the situation we have here, it will do no harm to initially set a minimum size for farms, depending on their specialisation and other factors.”

This process, reminiscent of the Soviet policy of collectivisation, began in autumn 2008, following President Karimov’s orders to “optimise” landholdings. (See Uzbek Farms Forced to Amalgamate.)

As the process got under way last year, NBCentralAsia observers reported that land was simply being seized from small-scale private farmers. The losers in the process have been deprived of land over which they held legal tenure. But it will be tough on some of the winners, too – they may have been given more land, but they now need to buy in more seed, fertiliser and manpower to cultivate it.

With 18 hectares of land in the western region of Bukhara, Ravshan Khudoinazarov grows both cotton and vegetables, and falls between the two minimum size limits for these different crops.

“So far I’ve managed to protect my land, but now I am afraid they’ll take it from me," said Khudoinazarov.

The law makes no provision for farmers stripped of their land.

An agriculture ministry expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the law would lead to unfair practices.

“The law will allow local authorities to arbitrarily hand substantial pieces of land to some people, while depriving others of their agricultural business," he said. "What is there left for the landless farmer to do? Only to hire himself out as a farmhand to a wealthy farmer in the area."

Abdurahmon Tashanov, who heads the Tashkent regional branch of the Ezgulik human rights group, believes the amended legislation enshrines abuses of farmers’ rights

"Farms hold 50-year land leases from the state,” he said. "That period has not expired, so the farmers still own [tenure of] the land that’s being taken from them.”

(NBCA is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)