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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Turkmenistan
Index
Turkmenistan inherited the system of state and collective farms from
the Soviet Union, with its command structure of production quotas, fixed
procurement prices, and soft budget constraints. The state still controls
marketing and distribution of agricultural produce through the Ministry of
Trade in urban areas and the Cooperative Alliance in rural locales; the
Ministry of Agriculture's Commercial Center has a monopoly on cotton
exports. Turkmenistan is highly dependent upon external sources for its
agricultural inputs, the price of which has escalated more that those for
agricultural products since independence.
Structure of the Agriculture Sector
Instead of restructuring the agricultural economy, the government's "New
Countryside" policy envisions only limited privatization of
agricultural enterprises and expansion of grain production to reduce
dependence on imports. The development of transportation is critical to
agricultural reform in Turkmenistan.
In 1991 field and orchard crops accounted for 70.4 percent of the value
of agricultural sales prices (computed in 1983 prices), while livestock
raising accounted for the remaining 29.6 percent (see table 18, Appendix).
Almost half the cultivated land was under cotton, and 45 percent of the
land under grains and fodder crops. Livestock raising centered on sheep,
especially for the production of Karakul wool. Whereas production of meat
and milk rose substantially in the 1986-91 period (increases of 14,000 and
110,000 tons, respectively), actual production in 1991 of 100,000 tons of
meat and 458,000 tons of milk represented a decrease from 1990. Production
of meat in 1992 declined 21 percent from that of 1991. Fishing,
bee-keeping, and silk-rendering occupy small areas of the agricultural
sector.
Irrigation
Under the prevailing climatic conditions, irrigation is a necessary
input for agriculture and has been developed extensively throughout
Turkmenistan. Irrigation management is divided between the Ministry of
Irrigation, which is responsible for operation and maintenance along the
Garagum Canal and for interrepublic water management, and the Irrigation
Institute, which designs, evaluates, and builds new projects. State farms
and collective farms are responsible for operation and maintenance on
their own farms, but they have no other autonomy. Because only 55 percent
of the water delivered to the fields actually reaches the crops, an
average of twelve cubic meters of water is expended annually per hectare
of cotton.
As a result of the construction of irrigation structures, and
especially of the Garagum Canal, the hydrological balance of the republic
has changed, with more water in the canals and adjacent areas and less in
the rivers and the Aral Sea. The largest of the republic's eleven
reservoirs are the Sary Yazy on the Murgap River, which occupies forty-six
square kilometers of surface and has a capacity of 239 million cubic
meters, and the Hawuz Khan on the Garagum Canal, which occupies ninety
square kilometers of surface and has a capacity of 460 million cubic
meters.
In 1983 Turkmenistan had an irrigated area of 1,054,000 hectares. Its
most developed systems are along the middle and lower course of the Amu
Darya and in the Murgap Basin. The Garagum Canal, which flows 1,100
kilometers with a capacity of 500 cubic meters per second, accounts for
almost all irrigation in Ahal and Balkan provinces along the northern
reaches of the Kopetdag Range. The canal also supplies additional water to
the Murgap oasis in southeastern Turkmenistan. The main canal was built in
sections between 1959 and 1976, initially providing irrigation for about
500,000 hectares. Plans call for construction to continue until the canal
reaches a length of 1,435 kilometers and a carrying capacity of 1,000
cubic meters per second, enabling it to irrigate 1,000,000 hectares.
Cotton
At a rate of 300 kilograms per citizen, Turkmenistan produces more
cotton per capita than any other country in the world. Among the Soviet
republics, Turkmenistan was second only to Uzbekistan in cotton
production. In 1983 Turkmenistan contributed 12.7 percent of the cotton
produced in the Soviet Union. Four of the republic's five provinces are
considered to be "cotton provinces": Ahal, Mary, Chärjew,
and Dashhowuz. Convinced that cotton is its most marketable product, the
post-Soviet government is committed to maintaining previous levels of
cotton production and area under cultivation.
In accordance with the Soviet policy of delegating the Central Asian
republics as the nation's cotton belt, the area under cotton climbed
rapidly from 150,400 hectares in 1940 to 222,000 hectares in 1960, 508,000
hectares in 1980, and 602,000 hectares in 1991. Because independence
brought fuel and spare-parts shortages, the cotton harvest declined in the
first half of the 1990s, however.
Industrial inputs for cotton production such as harvesters, sowing
machines, mechanized irrigation equipment, fertilizer, pesticides, and
defoliants have become less available to cotton farms in Turkmenistan
because the other former Soviet republics, which were the chief suppliers
of such items, raised their prices sharply in the first years of
independence.
For most Turkmen farmers, cotton is the most important source of
income, although cotton's potential contribution to the republic's economy
was not approached in the Soviet period. Experts predict that by the year
2000, Turkmenistan will process one-third of its raw cotton output in
textile mills located within the republic, substantially raising the rate
achieved in the Soviet and early post-Soviet periods. In 1993, the state's
procurement prices were raised significantly for high-grade raw seeded
cotton. State planners envision selling 70 percent of the crop to
customers outside the CIS.
Other Crops
Since independence, Turkmenistan's agricultural policy has emphasized
grain production in order to increase self-sufficiency in the face of a
sharp decline in trade among the former Soviet republics. A 50 percent
increase in the grain harvest in 1992 was followed by a rise of 70 percent
in 1993, despite unfavorable climatic conditions. Production of vegetables
declined in 1992 to 13 percent below the 1991 level, whereas that of
potatoes rose by 24 percent. High-quality melons are grown in the lower
and middle reaches of the Amu Darya and in the Tejen and Murgap oases. In
addition to these crops, subtropical fruits and nuts, especially
pomegranates, almonds, figs, and olives, are grown in the Ertek and Sumbar
valleys.
Data as of March 1996
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