Turkmen harvest claim looking rotten
By Institute for War and Peace Reporting staff
The Turkmen authorities' upbeat claims for this year's grain harvest are not
shared by farmers and agricultural experts. They say that because of numerous
difficulties facing the farming sector, the true figure is likely much lower.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on July 9, Turkmen President Gurbanguly
Berdymuhammedov reported that at the conclusion of the annual grain harvest,
farmers had gathered enough to satisfy domestic demand.
At somewhere over 1.4 million tonnes, the official harvest figure fell short of
the target of 1.6 million, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. It was
nevertheless hailed as a success, as it
was 200,000 tonnes more than the figure announced for last year.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Turkmenistan found itself dependant on
grain imports as its agriculture was largely given over to cotton production.
The harvest traditionally ends with great fanfare, with Galla Bairamy, a
national holiday established in 1998, the year the harvest first topped 1
million tonnes, allowing the Turkmen leadership to announce that the country
was now self-sufficient in grain.
The festivities held around the country on July 18 combined agricultural
exhibits, food stalls and awards ceremonies for the most successful farmers.
Meanwhile, the state-run media put out stories saying that the harvest success
was thanks to agricultural reforms pursued by President Berdymuhammedov since
he came to power in 2007, following the death of his predecessor Saparmurat
Niazov. The reforms included paying farmers more for produce sold to the state,
offering them better loan facilities and improving social infrastructure in the
countryside.
But farming experts say the reforms have so far had little impact on the
fundamental obstacles that prevent more efficient production.
Under Niazov, the large Soviet-era collective farms were dismantled and
replaced by small private farm holdings. But farmers say the old ways persist,
and the state continues to decide where grain is to be sown, set production
quotas for farmers and buy up crops at prices too low to create any incentive.
"It's impossible for a farmer to earn money for himself because of the
contracts imposed by the state," said one farmer. "It's just notional that
farms are held privately, while in reality we are forced to sell all our
harvest to the state for next to nothing, without keeping anything back in
reserve for our own needs."
Government quotas are the same for all regions of Turkmenistan, regardless of
differences in climate, soil quality and the availability of irrigation water
in this arid country. The state does provide farmers with seed and fertilizer,
which relieves them of some of their cashflow problems in spring. A farmer from
Balkan, a western region, complained that these inputs were often sub-standard
quality, with damp seed that did not produce seedlings.
Another farmer, from Dashoguz in the north, complained that it was almost
impossible to meet government targets there because this part of the country
was short of water.
An expert in the agricultural industry said the result of all these
shortcomings was that a more accurate figure for this year's production was
likely to be under 800,000 tonnes, or half the amount the government was
claiming.
To keep the population supplied with the staple bread, the government regularly
imports grain from neighboring Kazakhstan, and this higher-quality flour is on
sale at almost every market in Turkmenistan, he said.
A former collective farm head in the southern Ahal region who gave his name as
Oraz was similarly skeptical. "All the information that the country has
achieved independence in food production is wishful thinking on the part of the
authorities," he said.
This farmer said pressure to complete the harvest meant that the end date was
ordained from above, rather than being extended for as long as necessary to
ensure the crop was ripe. As a result, the crop was often cut before it was
ready, and would rot in storage, further depleting grain reserves.
Despite claims of high production, and the addition of imports from Kazakhstan,
bread shortages are not uncommon outside the capital, Ashgabat. In the
provinces, people often have to queue for hours before the bakeries open.
People from villages near Ashgabat travel into the city just to buy bread.
This article was produced jointly under two IWPR projects: Building Central
Asian Human Rights Protection & Education Through the Media, funded by the
European Commission; and the Human Rights Reporting, Confidence Building and
Conflict Information Program, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway. The
names of interviewees have been withheld out of concern for their security.
(The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of IWPR and can in no
way be taken to reflect the views of either the European Union or the Foreign
Ministry of Norway.)
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