Turkmen farmers sow wheat in unharvested cotton fields to keep to official timetable

Cotton harvesting isn’t over in Turkmenistan, but farmers are already sowing wheat in the same fields to comply with the official schedule, reports say.

Europe-based Turkmen.news website said on Thursday that farmers in northeastern Lebap Region have begun sowing wheat in the rows between the cotton plants because the dates for various agricultural work are set “from above” and cannot be missed.

“The farmers have failed to finish [cotton] picking in time for the date when they have to start sowing wheat,” it said.

The website said the same happened last year in northern Dashoguz Region.

Turkmen farmers have in recent years been using the same fields for growing cotton and wheat because of a shortage of irrigated farmland.

The website said the shortage was partially caused by the privatisation of thousands of hectares of what used to be farmland for development near cities and towns in recent years.

Building new irrigation systems to develop farming in new areas is expensive and time-consuming.

“This approach to rotating crops in the same fields makes the process of watering and fertilising wheat difficult,” the website said.

Besides, when wheat gets sown in cotton fields before the end of harvesting, the remaining cotton can only be picked by hand.

All farmland in Turkmenistan, as well as the entire farming infrastructure, including machinery and seeds, is owned by the state. The farmers cannot choose what and when to grow, and must sell their produce to the state at ‘official’ prices. Cotton and wheat are the two main crops grown in the country.  

The Turkmen government also widely uses employees of state-funded organisations (teachers, doctors and so on) to pick cotton.

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