Tajikistan’s Agriculture and Agro-industry Sector

Agriculture is Tajikistan’s major sector endowed with unique geographic and climatic environment. Due to its environment, Tajikistan can cultivate virtually almost all agricultural crops. The agricultural sector contributes nearly 30 percent to the country’s GDP and employs more than half of the total employment. In addition, it is responsible for more than 30 percent of exports. Especially, cotton alone provides 30 to 40 percent of budget revenues in taxes.

During the past years, about 400 agricultural producers have been restructured into over 14,000 farms with 3.8 million hectares of cropland. The agrarian reform significantly affected Tajikistan’s agricultural sector and related institutions. 85.3 percent of meat, 86.5 percent of milk, 81.5 percent of eggs, 56.7 percent of vegetables, and 66.3 percent of fruit and berries were produced by the private sector in 2001. However, the major part of the most valuable irrigated land is still controlled by state and collective farms.

The major food and agricultural commodities produced in Tajikistan are wheat, potatoes, cow milk, cotton seed, and cotton lint. Cotton lint is the major exporting agricultural commodity followed by onion and fruit products. Sugar, wheat, flour, and beef are major importing agricultural items of Tajikistan.

Cotton is the major crop whose production covers more than 50 percent of the country’s irrigated land. Before the independence, Tajikistan’s cotton yield per hectare was the highest in the central Asian region with an earning capacity of 60 to 70 percent of production costs. However, cotton production dramatically declined after the independence and halt of centralized supplies of material and technical resources. Furthermore, world lint cotton prices have dropped by more than 50 percent in the past years while prices of fuel, machinery, and fertilizers keep growing.

In Tajikistan, cotton marketing and production are subject to the state administrative system, there is no competition among participants. Also local government imposes extra charges on cotton sales to boost its tax collection.

Agriculture and Agro-industry Sector of Kyrgyz Republic

The Kyrgyz Republic’s economy is predominately driven by agriculture and has relatively small manufacturing industry. The agricultural sector contributes nearly 40 percent to the country’s GDP and employs about half of total registered employment. Following the break-up of state owned enterprises, the agricultural sector has increasingly moved away from large scale collective farming to smaller subsistence level of family farming. Specifically, 40 percent of agricultural output is produced by private farmers and 54 percent from family farms.

The major food and agricultural commodities, produced in Kyrgyz Republic are potatoes, wheat, cow milk, sugar beets, and maize. Cotton lint and tobacco leaf are the major exporting agricultural commodities and wheat and sugar are major importing agricultural items.

As part of its effort to stimulate the development of the cotton sector, the government has set aside about 3 percent of total arable land for cotton production. This resulted in growth of cotton production from 75,000 ton in 1995 to about 122,000 ton in 2004. Nearly 80 percent of the cotton is grown by private farmers, which generates almost 5 percent of the total value of the country’s exports. However, high production costs from lack of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides weaken the industry and negatively affect country’s cotton export potential. Tobacco is also an important cash crop for the Kyrgyz agricultural sector. However, most of tobacco is grown by state owned enterprises and local value-added production activities are very limited.

Mongolian Agro-industries and Agro Processing

Due to the lack of processing equipments and lagged technology development, the rates of value-addition are low in agro-industries. Mongolia produces about a quarter of the world output of cashmere. Small-scale cashmere processing factories are scattered in Mongolia. In 2003, there were five domestic and 80 foreign invested cashmere processing factories, of which there were 42 primary-level, 37 knitting, and 6 complex-level processing factories. Substantial amounts of raw or primary-level processed cashmeres are exported to China, hindering additional value creation within the borders of Mongolia.

Besides livestock production, food self-sufficiency is low. Crop farming is relatively new activity and was developed primarily through large state farms, although now those state farms are completely privatized. Wheat production in 2003 was 164,400 ton, which is not sufficient for feeding the people; Mongolia imports heavy amount of wheat flour from abroad including Kazakhstan. Vegetables and fruits had been produced sufficiently until the early 1990s, but they are now imported from China.

Tips for Choosing a Good Yoghurt

Yoghurt (or sometimes written yogurt), also known as sour milk is a result of fermentation process of milk. It is known that yoghurt contains two types of probiotics, Lactobacillus and Bifidobachterium. Yoghurt can be made ​​from any milk, including soy milk. But modern production is currently dominated by dairy milk. Fermentation of lactose contained in milk produces lactic acid, which plays a role in milk protein to produce a gel-like texture and a unique odor in the yoghurt. Yoghurt is often sold as with no flavor, however, yoghurt with taste of fruit, vanilla or chocolate are also popular.

If you are a yoghurt lover and do not have time to make it yourself then plan to buy it at the yoghurt outlet, so there are some tips for you to choose a good yoghurt:

1. Choose a thick yoghurt.
2. Choose yoghurt stored at cold temperatures, otherwise do not choose which placed in the outdoor, because it has usually been re-sterilized so the mikroorganism has gone.
3. Pay close attention to the label, which the plain yoghurt and drinks yoghurt and adjusted to your needs.
4. Pay close attention to the date of expiration.

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Review of Agricultural Commodities of Uzbekistan

The major food and agricultural commodities produced in Uzbekistan are wheat, cow milk, cotton seeds and lint, and tomatoes. Cotton lint, grapes, tomatoes and onions are the major exporting agricultural commodities and flour of wheat, sugar, and vegetable oils are major importing agricultural items.

A survey administered by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) proportionally sampled SMEs throughout the country, and 56 percent of the respondents are working at agricultural sector. It can be estimated from the survey, therefore, that the number of agro-industry enterprises amounts to 130 thousand because the number of active SMEs in 2004 is 237.5 thousand (IFC, 2003, 2004).

Uzbekistan is the seventh largest cotton producing country and the second biggest exporter of cotton after the U.S. in the world. About 60 percent of population is working in the cotton industry, meaning the importance of the sector in national economy is substantial. Cotton took up about 20 percent of total export amount in 2003, and therefore the state revenue from the cotton products in the world market is the largest in agricultural sector. The heavy dependence on raw mineral and agricultural products exposes the country to the risk of financial crisis stemming from unstable international demands and prices.

The world price of cotton is moving upward over the long term, but competition in world market is getting severer; China, the United States, India, and especially West African countries are competing with Uzbekistan with their cheap labor cost and production cost.

Wheat production amounts to about 4.8 million ton, which is quite enough for the self-sufficiency, but some amount of flour of good quality is imported from Kazakhstan.

the unpronouncably cool...

just bought my son a fjallraven's kanken daypack. i'm kind of obsessed with it...so much so, that i might pick one up for myself.

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