Climate and poverty hamper Tajikistan's quest for food security June 3, 2024

Tajikistan President on Shahrinav District

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Climate and poverty hamper Tajikistan's quest for food security

Posters across Tajikistan show President Emomali Rakhmon surrounded by an abundance of fruit and vegetables with the slogan: “Let's ensure food security!”

This goal is still a long way off in the impoverished Central Asian country, which faces the twin challenges of low agricultural production and climate change.

A third of Tajikistan's population of 10 million people is undernourished.

According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), half of all available food is imported, meaning the country's food security is at the mercy of brutal price fluctuations.”

The government has declared food security a “national strategic goal” and Rakhmon, who has been in power since 1992, has asked every family to build up food reserves for up to two years, just in case.

For Tajiks like Zarif Gaforov, a 60-year-old plumber, this is a big task.

“I can't stock up for two years,” he told AFP in the capital Dushanbe. “There is nothing to stock up on - everything would spoil.”

Gaforov said he had stocked up on flour, potatoes, onions, and butter, “enough for the winter”.

At a local supermarket, Mavchuda Obedova said she had stocked up on water, flour, and cereals “as the president recommended”.

For most people in Tajikistan, however, it is impossible to stock up on large quantities of food, as the average monthly income is less than 200 euros (217 US dollars), the lowest of all former Soviet republics.

“We buy our food from one day to the next,” says 30-year-old nurse Mavzuna Chakalova. “If we earned more money, we could build up reserves.

Around 60 percent of her household budget is spent on food, many times more than in many Western countries.

Climate change is exacerbating the problem: frequent landslides are destroying farmland, while melting glaciers produce less runoff each summer, which can lead to water shortages and droughts, which in turn promote soil erosion.

“The president's call to build food reserves is important in the context of climate change,” said Bakhodur Rakhmonalizoda, an official with the Tajikistan Food Security Committee.

“In Tajikistan, around 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas, where access to food could be difficult in the event of natural disasters,” he said.

For this reason, the state hoards food for emergencies in secret quantities and secret locations in the mountainous country.

This is compounded by an inefficient agricultural sector which, according to international organizations, accounts for around 23 percent of the economy and employs 60 percent of the population.

“We need to work harder, use the land and water effectively, and produce as much produce as possible,” Rakhmon urged farmers last month.

As part of his efforts, he has also banned food wastage, which he describes as an “obstacle to increasing the quality of life of the population”.

However, that hasn't stopped the president from flaunting food in abundance.

Foreign heads of state are regularly welcomed with meter-high mountains of apples, grapes, and melons.

During one such visit in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin was presented with six trucks full of fruit for his 70th birthday.

By Bruno KALOUAZ

bk/jc/js