DUSHANBE, February 3, 2010, Asia-Plus — Chinese specialists will use modern technologies for production of cotton and rice in the south of Tajikistan, the source at the department for international cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said.
According to him, an agreement on this subject was signed between the agricultural ministries of Tajikistan and China in July 2010.
“Under this agreement, farmers from China’s Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) will use modern technology of plastic film mulching cultivation of cotton on 60 hectares of cotton fields in Bokhtar district, Khatlon province” said the source, “Besides, 1,000 hectares of farmland in Khatlon’s Qumsangir district will be allocated to plastic film mulching cultivation of rice.”
The source stressed that those fields were not farmed out. “Specialists from XUAR will just show Tajik farmers modern technologies of cultivation of these crops,” said he, “They will stay here for two years, instructing our farmers in contemporary farming techniques.”
The source added that the mentioned agreement was based on a government-to-government agreement on cooperation between Tajikistan and XUAR singed between the two countries during President Rahmon’s visit to China in June 2010.
We will recall that the article “Tajikistan agrees to allow Chinese farmers to till Land” by Bruce Pannier published by Radio Liberty on January 27 says the new land-lease deal will bring 1,500 Chinese farmers to work the fields in the Qumsangir and Bokhtar districts of southern Khatlon province. The Tajik government, which has not said much publicly about the lease agreement, has reasons for taking this step. Tajikistan”s unemployment situation is so dire that hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, most of them men, are driven to work in Russia. Some stay for part of the year, some for several years, some never return.
This leads to a shortage of manpower in rural areas, which results in some land being left fallow, as appears to be the case with the land the Chinese are coming to farm. According to Tilomurod Daniyarov of the Agricultural Ministry”s international affairs department, the Chinese are promising to introduce drip-irrigation methods and other contemporary farming techniques to the regions and share their expertise and technology with neighboring Tajik communities.
In the meantime, Tajik sociologist Rustam Haidarov warns that the entry of Chinese farmers is only the first step toward something bigger, Radio Liberty’s article said. “It is China”s strategy to resettle its people in different countries. It”s China”s policy,” he said. “They occupy slowly, cautiously. They realize their own goals in Tajikistan and affect our economic policy. In time this will lead to an influence in politics.” Haidarov added that “where thousands of Tajiks have left to go to Russia, the Chinese will fill the vacuum. Some [Tajiks] even marry Chinese.”
The article notes that 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.
