DUSHANBE, January 17, 2012, Asia-Plus — Chinese investors intend to expand their presence in Tajikistan’s agrarian sector.
Narzullo Dadaboyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), told reporters on January 17 that the sides are currently conducting negotiations on leasing 200 hectares of land in the Yovon district, Khatlon province to Chinese farmers. According to him, these lands have not been cultivated because of high level of underground waters in the area.
Dadaboyev stressed that 412 hectares of land in the Rumi district, Khatlon province were leased to China’s company, Jin Jiang. “Under the long-term agreement, the Chinese company will invest 2 million U.S. dollars in development of these lands,” he said.
In 2010, 50 hectares of land in Khatlon province were reportedly leased to China’s company, Haili (phonetically spelled), for rice growing. “Last year, Chinese farmers yielded 5 tons of rice from each hectare of those lands,” said the MoA spokesman. “Harvest from these lands is sold only in Tajikistan. In China, the price for rice is 30 percent lower than in Tajikistan.”
He considers that participation of foreign investors will give a positive impetus to further development of the agrarian sector in Tajikistan.
Dadaboyev added that a Tajik-Chinese joint venture for processing of high-quality cotton seeds with productivity of up to 8 tons per hectare would be launched in one of regions of Tajikistan in the future.
We will recall that Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported in January 2011 that Chinese farmers are arriving to work Tajik land, following Dushanbe”s decision to lease out 2,000 hectares of land to the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in western China. The land-lease deal reportedly brought 1,500 Chinese farmers to work the fields in the Qumsangir and Bokhtar districts of southern Khatlon province.
China has invested some $4 billion in Tajikistan in recent years, and is participating in a number of joint projects. But China for the most part sends its own workforce to implement such projects, meaning unemployed Tajik laborers get no relief.
