Turkmenistan’s government reverted last year to the Soviet-era practice of forcing students, state employees and military conscripts into the fields to collect the cotton harvest, according to documentation compiled by a coalition of watchdog groups.
Their report, titled Turkmenistan Cotton: State-Imposed Forced Labor in the Annual Cotton Harvest, High Risk in Global Supply Chains, highlights widespread government abuses in the agricultural sector in what is widely considered to be one of the world’s most repressive states.
In 2025, officials abandoned efforts undertaken in prior years to reduce the use of forced labor.Once again, doctors, nurses and teachers were drafted to pick cotton and given large daily harvest quotas. “In the 2025 cotton harvest, the government of Turkmenistan forced all groups of state employeesincluding teachers and technical staff of schools, doctors and nurses, and employees of utilities organizations and cultural centersto pick cotton or pay for replacement pickers,” the report states.
Some forced laborers told rights monitors that their picking quotas were “impossible to meet given that picking is labor intensive and the temperatures” routinely exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit.Those failing to meet quotas faced fines and other punishments.
State employees had the option of buying their way out of service in the fields but had to pay steep fees to secure replacements. “The amounts and the frequency with which employees had to pay varied across regions and state institutions and were determined by the employees’ position and income,” the report noted. “In some regions, private merchants and shop owners were also extorted money to pay for replacement cotton pickers.” The report documents disarray in Turkmenistan’s agricultural sector.
Farmers had difficulty accessing needed equipment, fertilizer and resources to develop the cotton crop.They also had to contend with uneven supplies of water.Representatives of four organizations Turkmen News, the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, the Progress Foundation and the Cotton Campaign compiled the information used in the report.
Farmers told rights monitors that the cost of inputs for the cotton crop in many areas exceeded the value of the harvest, leaving many in debt. “Any unpaid debt is carried over to the next year, creating a vicious circle of exploitation,” the report asserted.