Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that in select farmers’ associations in Mary and Lebap velayats cotton has not been completely harvested from some fields.
This situation is being observed in daikhans’ associations “Vatan”, “Turkmenistan”, “Rukhnama” in Turkmengala etrap of Mary velayat and some associations in Farap etrap of Lebap velayat.
Land tenants are unable to engage even unemployed residents from urban and rural areas to harvest cotton since they require prompt and fair wage for their labour. Land tenants have no cash to pay for the services of hired workers as the government will pay for the harvested cotton in January the earliest.
There are no combine harvesters in the majority of farmers’ associations. Almost all combine harvesters in Mary velayat are now being deployed in Khauzskhan district.
According to the news outlet ANT, land tenants in Mary velayat make arrangements with officers from military units to bring conscripts to the fields.
As has been previously reported conscripts are not paid for the harvested cotton but daikhans provide meals to them.
Farmers pay remuneration fees only to higher-ranking officers.
Due to a shortage of irrigation water crop yield has been quite poor in many regions. There was almost no water in the Murgab river water to irrigate agricultural lands in Ioleten, Murgab, Tagta-bazar etraps of Mary velayat. This resulted in a poor cotton yield in these etraps.
Good crops have been harvested in Turkmengala, Bairamaly, Karakum etraps of the aforementioned velayat, which is irrigated from Karakum canal and the majority of etraps in Lebap velayat where the Amu-Darja river runs along.
Thus, in some fields cotton did not grow due to the shortage of irrigation water whereas other fields where crops had grown due to proper irrigation are facing problems with harvesting.
Let us recall that on 30 November President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov ordered Deputy Prime Minister Esenmyrat Orzgeldiev “to harvest cotton completely”.
In previous years cotton harvesting campaigns had been completed in late October or early November.