The amounts of agricultural production in Turkmenistan are decreasing every year. According to high-ranking officials overseeing agriculture, private farms need to be consolidated to improve the situation.
The commissions comprised of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, local khyakimlik’s offices (local administrations) and head of agricultural associations (formerly collective and Soviet farms) meet with farmers in an attempt to convince them to merge small plots of lands they lease, сorrespondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report.
Currently rural inhabitants are leasing plots of land ranging from 1 to 4 hectares in area. Officials suggest that several houses unite to enlarge the area to 50 to 100 hectares. Following their logic, this should decrease the production cost of the agricultural goods.
In Gerogly etrap of Dashoguz velayat people agree to unite but demand that the land be located closer to the irrigation canals and that less salinated plots are allocated to them.
It turned out to be impossible to take into account these requirements in the villages of Bedirkent, Magaryf and others where meetings with the locals had been held. Rural inhabitants were discontent with the incompetence of higher-ranking authorities and their inability to solve real problems and who even argued between themselves.
We are in charge of our plots of land.Under any consolidation, each household will lose something while we do not know what we will gain.
In a nutshell, the words of the authorities are convincing but when it comes to specific proposals, they cannot do anything and a few times they were even about to get into a fight, a female resident of Magaryf village said.
Radio “Azatlyk” reports that the local authorities have contacted local residents with a similar proposal. According to the news outlet, the projected consolidation of daihan’s associations by transferring lands to wealthy farmers is held within the framework of the agricultural reform.
The meeting participants are informed that from now on the plots of land will be transferred to farmers, who agree to manage larger land plots of 50 to 150 hectares.
It is quite unlikely that there are people in Lebap who will agree with the proposal. Today daihan’s associations leasing large plots of land get into debt and owe to the government within a year, one of the farmers emphasized.
Those who agree to accept the consolidation proposal are offered John Deere and Case equipment on credit, which costs tens of thousands of dollars. In return a farmer is obliged to hand in a ton of cotton for $50 to the state. Thus, a farmer will have a life-long debt to the state.
Let us recall that in 2019 Turkmenistan harvested half of the projected wheat crops, whereas in 2018 the country harvested half as much of cotton and a third of planned wheat crops.