Food Security in Tajikistan: Private Farming Shows Promise

by Payam Foroughi & photos by Payam Foroughi

Volleyball players in the national league compete barefoot; the law school grows corn on its campus; retirees sell their meager life possessions in the streets; a young boy subs as an urban shepherd after school, watching over the family cow as it grazes in one of Dushanbe's parks. These are some of the less shocking ways the people of Tajikistan attempt to cope with the country's post-independence privation. According to the International Foundation for Election Systems, in a recent survey of 1,500 people in Tajikistan, 57 percent described their quality of life as "bad" or "very bad" and 62 percent agreed with the statement "my family can barely afford to buy enough food." Respondents identified "the economy" and "political uncertainty" as the first and second most critical issues facing Tajikistan.

Currently, agriculture in Tajikistan generates more than 40 percent of the national income and employs over half the work force. However, Tajikistan's food supply is far from adequate. Although Tajikistan relies heavily on its agricultural sector, its arable land mass is minimal. Due to its mountainous topography, Tajikistan has only about 800,000 hectares of arable land, or 6 percent of its territory, as compared to 20 percent of the United States, 13 percent of Kazakstan or 7 percent of Kyrgyzstan. Furthermore, as a result of independence from the USSR, the recent civil war and a general economic depression, Tajikistan's internal food production has declined and the country has not been able to import enough food to make up the gap. Without the aid of the international community, mainly the United Nations, the European Community, the United States and independent NGOs, portions of the country would likely face a disastrous food deficit. The leading international donor of food aid in Tajikistan is the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Its Vulnerable Group Feeding Program (VGF) provides daily sustenance to nearly 400,000 of the estimated 620,000 vulnerable population in the country. Most of those remaining are served by NGOs such as the Aga Khan Foundation, Save the Children/US, German Agro Action and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

However, since the country's total wheat supply falls short of the 1 to 1.3 million tons needed annually, Tajikistan faces a food deficit in spite of foreign assistance. For those who can afford the equivalent of nearly $18 for a 50-kilogram sack of wheat flour, the country's bazaars now provide a plentiful supply of both local and imported products. Unfortunately, for the rest of the country, long-term food security is not guaranteed. International food aid is precarious and the increase in internally produced wheat in the past few years is partly due to the sowing of hill lands, which have yet to prove their long-term agricultural and economic viability. In this bleak situation, private farming stands out as an area of hope for increased food production and employment.

Private Farming: New Opportunities

The creation of the USSR in 1917 entailed the dismantling of private farms and the creation of sovkhozi (state farms) and kolkhozi (collective farms), which were nominally "voluntary" unions of agriculture workers on the gradual route to full communism. Seventy years later, the USSR's breakup and the consequent drive towards market economics has encouraged the newly independent states to promote forms of private agriculture. Tajikistan's return to private farming has been slow, but its benefits are already noticeable. According to Peter Goossens, country representative for CARE, small-scale private farms produce much of Tajikistan's food supply and employ a significant part of the labor force. The State Statistical Committee estimates that in 1996 private farms produced 38 percent of Tajikistan's wheat, 67 percent of its vegetables, and more than 70 percent of the country's milk and meat.

However, private ownership of land is still not permitted. Tajikistan law states that all land "is in exclusive ownership of the state [which] guarantees its effective use in the interests of the people." Nevertheless, in recent years the government has allowed an arrangement of land use in the form of "lifelong inheritable holdings," called dehqan or "peasant" farms. According to Nasrullah Sharipov, deputy director of the Association of Dehqan Farms of Tajikistan, "If dehqan farms can prove themselves to the government, their numbers will increase, if not, the country will probably go back to collective farming." There are currently an estimated 6,000 dehqan farms representing roughly 150,000 hectares of arable and pasture land in Tajikistan.

Another trend in the efficient use of agricultural land has been land leasing. Due to the almost total lack of technical and budgetary support to collective farms from the central government, state farms have been permitted to lease out major sections of their land with few restrictions attached. WFP has been quick to take advantage of this. Since 1995, WFP has been working on a "food for work" program in conjunction with international NGOs with the joint aims of rebuilding infrastructure and helping vulnerable populations become self-reliant. WFP provides food rations and NGOs provide technical support, a partnership that helps beneficiaries generate income. "We concentrate on the poorest and help the people support themselves," says Gerard Viguie, WFP country director for Tajikistan.

In 1996, while searching for further food for work methods to promote economic and food security for VGF beneficiaries, WFP workers came across a kolkhoz that was willing to lease its lands to individual beneficiaries. Since then, WFP has helped clients, mostly women and widowed households, negotiate four-year land leases with state farms for half hectare plots in exchange for 20 percent of their annual harvests. As incentive and compensation for securing the needed agronomic inputs, participating households receive three kilograms of wheat flour per working day for a minimum of six months from WFP in addition to their regular VGF provisions. Once the first successful harvest is brought in, beneficiaries are expected to be on their way to self-sufficiency. Some beneficiaries also profit from NGOs such as ACTED, which makes small mills and bakeries available to farmers, or Save the Children, which provides small loans through its village banking program.

WFP's Tajikistan land lease projects have continued to grow. By the end of October 1997, there were more than 6,700 WFP lease farmers working 1,704 hectares of land. By the end of 1997, the number of participating households could reach 8,000. The majority of these plots are planted in wheat, as it is less costly to grow than cotton and much easier to consume or sell after harvest. The other main crops of WFP beneficiaries are rice and corn.

Overall, the land lease program has been well received by both beneficiaries and authorities. However, in two cases the local authorities have demanded, albeit unsuccessfully, the return of leased land. Fortunately, such opposition has been infrequent.

Privatization and agricultural land lease in Tajikistan could show the way to an economic rescue. Carried out incorrectly, however, land lease could lead to major socio-economic turmoil. If large areas of land are distributed to powerful individuals who in turn hire people as farm laborers, "[we] could be dealing with the beginnings of a return to feudal society," cautions one international observer. However, if small plots of land are either permanently distributed or leased on a long-term basis to rural households in need, Tajikistan could be well on its way to food security.

Payam Foroughi, a development consultant specializing in socio-economic research and data analysis, is based in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. His most recent work has been with the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) researching the legal issues of agricultural lands in Tajikistan.

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