On 22 May, for the second time in recent months, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov criticized Deputy Prime Minister overseeing agriculture Esenmyrat Orazgeldiev and highlighted that reforms in the domestic agricultural complex were being implemented at an extremely low pace.
The President also expressed discontent with the performance of daikhans and mentioned that “despite the available opportunities and favourable conditions that are being created to ensure productive labour of daikhans, reforms in the Turkmen agricultural sector are progressing extremely slowly”.
“The daikhan’s associations, many of which make losses, are the main suppliers of agricultural produce in the country. Labour efficiency of entrepreneurs in rural areas is 3-4 times higher than that of ordinary daikhans”, the President said.
It should be mentioned that apart from daikhan associations (collective farms) there are private associations of farmers, the so-called entrepreneurs. They work more efficiently as they can choose what crops to grow and are entitled to apply for loans and so on.
When an entrepreneur or a group of entrepreneurs apply to the bank for a loan, they need to submit a business plan, for example in cattle breeding.
In this case they indicate that they will be growing fodder.Another example is if the vegetable processing factory is scheduled to be set up, vegetables will be grown on the leased land plot.
If the bank is satisfied and the loan is granted, entrepreneurs have to abide by the project set out in the business plan.
Recently the number of entrepreneurs has been on the rise. For instance, in 2016 “Turkmenistan: Golden Age” reports that in 2015 the number of daikhan’s association increased by 10% in 2015 and the number of private farms increased by 30%.
The number of collective farmers willing to lease out the state land to grow crops is decreasing.The thing is that the government makes a decision as to what crops and what volumes should be grown by farmers, prevents the latter from selling the yield, buys harvested crops at low prices and imposes penalties for failure to fulfill the plan.
For this reason the local authorities urge public sector employees to lease out the available plots of land.For instance, Radio “Azatlyk” reports that the authorities of Balkan velayat urged principals of schools, located in Serdar (formerly, Gyzylarbat), Bereket (Gazanzhyk) and Magtymguly (Garrygala) to rent the state-owned plots of land to be subsequently leased out to teachers.
On 23 and 24 May executives of regional administrations as well as education and healthcare boards held meetings with school principals where they demanded that the latter lease out land plots of 15-20 hectares to grow vegetables and cucurbit crops.
Representatives of district administrations in Balkan velayat said that the decision had been imposed by higher ranking authorities and measures would be undertaken against educators for failure to fulfill commitments. At the same time, the plots of land to be leased out teaching staff are located 200 to 350 kilometers away.