by Kira Kramer
Since Turkmenistan obtained independence, the situation in Turkmenistan’s agricultural sector has been gradually deteriorating.Media outlets triumphantly announce the launch of the wheat harvesting campaign but keep silent whether the crop harvesting plan set forth by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has been fulfilled.
In every possible way the head of the state is trying to remedy the situation by dismissing officials, purchasing expensive agricultural machinery, attracting foreign investments into the agricultural sector and even utilizing probes and satellites to assess the state of farmland.
These initiatives do not bring about any positive results as planned wheat volumes are not harvested and residents line up to buy bread and flour as in the 90-s.
Cause-and-effect relationship
In the past two years Turkmenistan has been experiencing a shortfall in wheat crops volume which caused the deficit of flour and bread.At the Khalk Maslakhaty session held on 25 September, 2018 the President acknowledged that “today the agricultural accomplishments are lower than expected” and proposed to restructure the agricultural sector.
This statement was made following numerous reports about food abundance in Turkmenistan and dozens of television broadcasts featuring store counters full of groceries, including bread and bakery products.
Turkmenistan’s agricultural sector is regulated by the state-run economy and for this reason the quota for wheat, cotton and other crops are established by the state, whereas the blame for the problems in agriculture is shifted to poor performance of daikhans.
In the summer of 2017, when the state-run media outlets did not report about 1,6 mln tons of harvested crops, the President severely reprimanded higher-ranking officials of the agro-industrial sector and held the executives of velayats and daikhans accountable for poor harvest. “The daikhans’ 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 head of the state said.
This is despite the statement by the President that “all the necessary conditions are available in Turkmenistan to ensure the efficient development of the agro-industrial sector whereas daikhans and tenant farmers are fully provided with high quality seeds, mineral fertilizers, powerful machinery, water and vehicles for transporting crops”.
“Under such a results-oriented stimulation and targeted financial support the overall performance in the sector remains incommensurately low. Why?”, — the news outlet “Turkmenistan: golden age” quotes the President.
At the Cabinet session held in June 2017 the President said that “a bit over a million tons of wheat had been harvested”.
However, in March 2018 the President unexpectedly overstated the wheat harvest plan and reported that “last year farmers harvested over a million tons of wheat”.
“2017 harvest”
Flour in exchange of documents
If more wheat was harvested pursuant to reports, in practice Turkmenistan experienced a shortage of grain.In February restrictions on the sale of flour up to 5 kilos per person were reported to have been imposed.
Moreover, bread quota restrictions were introduced.Queues made up of 30 to 40 people are formed in front of the bakeries with a restriction of no more than 4 loaves of bread per person, which is considered to be insufficient for large Turkmen families.
Photo by azathabar.com
The residents of Turkmenistan’s provinces were then requested to present residence registration when purchasing flour.
It appears that residents of other provinces could not purchase flour allocated for a specific region. “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” has reported that a certificate issued by local education authority allowed buying one sack of flour (50 kilos) per household a month.
Not it
The problems in agriculture were indirectly confirmed by the President who addresses the issues of Turkmenistan’s agriculture almost at each Cabinet session.
The President subsequently issued the reprimands to khyakims of all velayats for agriculture-related problems.
As viewed by the President, the problems focused on local shortcomings rather than planned agricultural policy. The head of the state was quoted as saying that “despite the sufficient quantity of mineral fertilizers and water resources, agrotechnical standards are poorly complied with in many country’s provinces and the manufacturing equipment is outdated”.
Then the authorities started coming up with numerous proposals to rescue the Turkmen agriculture which is sinking to the bottom.
The head of the state tried to solve problems by preserving the state-run policy in agriculture. Berdymukhammedov demanded that the work efficiency of scientific and research institutes and personnel training be improved, control over employment of agricultural university graduates be tightened and state-of-the-art technologies be actively utilized.
At one of the Cabinet session the President ordered using satellites to explore the crops. According to the head of the state “this will improve the efficiency of agricultural production”.
Foreign companies were invited to address the problems of the agroindustrial complex in Turkmenistan.During a conversation with a representative of the US-based CNH Industrial, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery Berdymukhammedov informed him that the agricultural reform is underway in Turkmenistan and the agricultural facilities and infrastructure is being modernized and proposed partnership.
During the visit to China the Turkmen delegation held negotiations devoted to cooperation in the agricultural sector. Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry reported that “the working visit was organized within the framework of fulfilling President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov’s instructions on attracting foreign investments into the Turkmen agro-industrial complex”.
In the framework of the meeting with CEO of John Deere Berdymukhammedov emphasized that “in recent years great emphasis in Turkmenistan has been placed on building up the potential of the agricultural sector and John Deere is actively involved in joint agricultural projects”.
The agreement was signed between John Deer and Turkmenistan to launch an educational program for students of the Turkmen Agricultural University.
Contradictory reports
The contradicting reports have been published in state-run media outlets. On the one hand, at each Cabinet session the President criticized the performance of the agricultural sector but on the other hand, television and news agencies which are totally controlled by him reported about accomplishments in ensuring food sovereignty.
In May 2018 Turkmen media outlets claimed that Turkmenistan’s farmers ensured “stable self-sufficiency in food products”, — emphasizing that “Turkmen food processing industry has been producing more local food products, which resulted in food abundance in the domestic market.
Following the launch of the 2018 harvesting campaign, the state information agency TDH reported on 28 June that over 1 million tons of wheat had been delivered to Turkmenistan’s procurement centers.
In July the President permitted all officials, except the one overseeing the agroindustrial sector, to take a two-week annual leave.
It was announced that Turkmenistan would need to harvest 1,6 mln tons of wheat as in the previous year and for this reason the holiday of Esenmyrat Orazgeldiev, Deputy Prime Minister overseeing agriculture, was delayed.
On 5 July Berdymukhammedov said that “the wheat harvesting campaign is almost completed and the grain yield suggests that the country has ensured food security”. “The grain surplus might be exported overseas”, the head of state added unexpectedly but did not specify how many tons of grain had been harvested.
The newspaper “Neitralny Turkmenistan” later published an article which said that “over a million tons of wheat was harvested in Turkmenistan this year”.
Yet, the country is still experiencing a shortage of grain. Huge queues of residents who attempt to buy flour and bread are formed in front of the stores.
It became known in September “that “after a lengthy break Turkmenistan has resumed imports of Kazakhstan’s grain”.
Land to daikhans
It appears that the President came to realize that agriculture needs to be fundamentally restructured and therefore this issue was raised at the first session of the Khalk Maslakhaty held in September 2018.
At the start of the session the head of the state assured that “food abundance has been ensured in Turkmenistan which is listed as a grain exporter”.
Domestically-produced grain and cotton are in great demand in overseas markets, which plays a significant role in the development of the national economy”.
Afterwards Berdymukhammedov acknowledged that “today the agricultural accomplishments are lower than expected” and put forward his proposal to improve the performance of the agro-industrial sector.
After repeated attempts to instruct daikhans what crops to grow the President unexpectedly put forward a few proposal on liberalization of the agricultural sector.Berdymukhammedov permitted to sow cotton and grain on 70% of areas on allocated plots of land and grow other agricultural crops on the remaining 30% of fields.
He suggested that procurement prices for cotton and wheat be increased and authorized daikhans to sell excessive farm produce beyond the contractual obligations at prices determined by them.
The proposals articulated by the President seem to be reasonable and inspire hope that well-considered reforms will be carried out.At the same time, Berdymukhammedov is reluctant to fully dismiss the scenario and give freedom to daikhans.
The habit of exercising rigid ignoring the crisis and reporting on food abundance prevails.Several days after the Khalk Maslakhaty session, addressing the UN, Berdymukhammedov again assured the members of foreign delegations that “food security has been ensured in Turkmenistan and residents’ nutrition is improving day by day”.