Agriculture in Tajikistan

[3] In 2006 Tajikistan still had the lowest income per capita among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries: $1,410 (purchasing power parity (PPP) equivalents) compared with nearly $12,000 for Russia.

[4] The low income and the high agrarian profile justify and drive the efforts for agricultural reform since 1991 in the hope of improving the population's well-being.

[2] Agricultural output in Tajikistan is hampered by the relatively small amount of arable land, lack of investments into infrastructure, farm machinery, and equipment.

The intensive irrigation of cotton in Tajikistan's valleys reduces the flow in the two large rivers feeding the Aral Sea: the Syr Darya in the Ferghana Valley in the north and the Amu Darya along the southern border with Afghanistan, which in turn relies on its tributaries Kofarnihon, Vakhsh, and Kyzylsu rivers.

The "white gold" of Tajikistan, as well as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, may well have contributed to the catastrophic drying of the Aral Sea during the Soviet times and thereafter.

[1] Animals raised in Tajikistan include (in descending order of importance) chickens, cattle, sheep, goats, and horses.

[9] However, dehqan farmers have proved reluctant to split off from the collective unit due to high costs and administrative complexities.

[7] In March 2008, the International Monetary Fund announced that Tajikistan had drawn between 2004 and 2006 more than US$47 million from the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility on the basis of inaccurate information regarding government debt and National Bank reserves.

[10] The National Bank of Tajikistan had guaranteed loans to the cotton sector, thus increasing government obligations without telling the IMF.

The IMF ordered the country to repay this amount in six monthly installments during 2008–2009, while taking action to improve and strengthen the monitoring of data reported to the Fund.

[11] In November, 2011 the Government of Japan provided support for enhancement of agrarian and education sector in the northern province of Sughd, Tajikistan.

[12] In recent years Tajikistan's economy has become heavily dependent on China, as part of the latter country's massive Belt and Road initiative.

The Aga Khan Foundation identified these problems and beginning in 2018 helped organise and fund education and growers' cooperatives.