Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that while the Turkmen authorities are addressing the problems related to the shortage of irrigation water in Dashoguz velayat, land tenants from Lebap velayat are also negatively affected by the water deficit.
According to rural inhabitants, the level of water in irrigation canals is very low and for the irrigation of cotton fields it is mixed with drainage water, i.e. which has already been used on the fields, and, consequently, extremely salinated.
Agriculturists advise land tenants to purchase or rent pumps to pump water from canals. However, land tenants have to do this at their own expense.
After watering fields with drainage water a saline crust is formed on the fields. In order to break it farmers need to carry out the unplanned cultivation, for which tractor operators need to pay 150 manats per hectare at their own expense.
To grow the planned volume of cotton and make sure the planned volume of harvest is handed over to the authorities, land tenants must invest their own funds. Otherwise land plots might be confiscated from them.
Cotton usually blossoms in early June. Now it is late July and cotton on the fields is still very low and it is unlikely that it will blossom soon (see the cover photo).
This situation is being observed in agricultural associations in Sayat etrap: Gulistan (formerly, the collective farm named after M. Gorky), Enish (formerly, the collective farm “Victory”) and others.
Leasing land (land cannot be purchased for personal use) with the purpose of growing wheat, cotton and other produce and then handing it over to the state is one of the few ways to generate some income in rural areas and for this reason rural inhabitants have to agree with all conditions and spend their own money for services which must be paid for by the state.
If a land tenants is unable to achieve the crop yield target, the plot of land is confiscated and handed over to other, larger and, consequently, wealthier land tenants who lease up to tens of hectares of land.
In order to work on the fields, they hire former smaller land tenants as subcontractors and consequently, pay them small remuneration.The post Вecause of the shortage of water cotton blossom is delayed for a month and a half first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.