| ID: | 85963 |
|---|---|
| Country: | Tajikistan |
| Title: | Tajikistan - Community-based Agricultural Support Project (CASP) - October 2023 |
| Description: |
Mr Samijon Juraev, head of Agricultural Machinery Service Provider Sami Juraev is the head of the dehkan farm Sami and the Sami Juraev Agricultural Machinery Service Provider. Sami, 55 years old, lives in Ghazantarak Village, Devashtich District in the Sugd Region of northern Tajikistan together with his wife and five children – two daughters and three sons. He has 13 grandchildren. Sami’s main livelihood is the income he earns from his 34-hectares dehkan farm, now supplemented with money he is earning from the agricultural services he provides. “When I get up in the morning, I have breakfast and then come directly out here to the fields because there are so many things to do. From dawn until dusk, I am here. The biggest challenge I faced in the past was access to funding. But thanks to the project, now we have we have solved that issue.” Sami was the first to establish a family-based dehkan farm in the area in 2004 following a government land reform resolution. Together with the farm’s 19 shareholders, all extended family members, they cultivated a rain-fed area, focusing on ways to use the farm most effectively to improve crop productivity. Their children attended the local schools, but then mostly went to the Russian Federation in search of migrant labour jobs. With remittances Sami’s three sons and other shareholders’ children sent home, together with some credit he managed to get from the local bank, Sami realized the farm’s dream of drilling a bore well for irrigation water in 2020. Access to irrigation water enabled Sami to increase production on the farm by extending the growing season, but lack of adequate agricultural machinery was a stumbling block to increasing productivity. The machinery the farm did have was old and broken down. Tractor operators from other villages hired to plough the fields charged high prices and often prepared the rain-fed fields for planting too late in the season, negatively impacting on yields and profit. CASP provided Sami with a 50 per cent matching grant in 2023 to establish an Agricultural Machinery Service Provider business. Not only does he now have the machinery he needs for his own farm, but he is also providing agricultural machinery services to other dehkan farmers nearby. He uses the tractor, plough and sowing tools to prepare the fields for cultivation at the right times and for a fee that is much more affordable, thus leading to greater productivity and profit both for himself and for neighbouring farmers. “The project has increased our food security. We have the food we produce, preserving our fruits and vegetables for winter, so that we have plenty to eat all twelve months of the year. And my sons no longer emigrate in search of jobs. We have food, water, agricultural machinery, jobs – everything that we need, right here.” |
| Size: | 4.74 MB; 5472 x 3648 pixels; 463 x 309 mm (print at 300 DPI); 1448 x 965 mm (screen at 96 DPI); |
| Show more details: | Didor Sadulloev |
| Copyright: | © IFAD/ Didor Sadulloev |
| Categories: | New from Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia |
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