A field of cotton in Tajikistan. Image from Flickr, World Bank Photos. License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Even though Tajikistan is considered an agricultural country, only six percent of its territory is arable land, the rest is mountainous. Despite this, agriculture provides 20 percent of the country's GDP and over 45 percent of the country's employment. 

Tajikistan is one of the world's top exporters of raw cotton. In 2022, Tajikistan exported USD 212 million worth of raw cotton, making it the 12th largest exporter in the world. 

However, Tajikistan’s cotton sector suffers from outdated machinery, low-quality seeds, insufficient government support for local farmers, and a lack of foreign investors willing to develop Tajikistan’s cotton and textile industries. Moreover, Tajikistan’s legal framework, corruption, and top-down power structures make this country unattractive to Western investors. 

China offered Tajikistan a helping hand and invested over USD 3.8 billion over the last ten years, mainly in mining and agribusiness. China’s investments in Tajikistan's cotton industry reflect a broader strategy to enhance agricultural production and secure raw materials for its textile industry.

China’s cotton diplomacy

While international donors and foreign investors were wary of investing in Tajikistan, Chinese companies have been willing to navigate Tajikistan's complicated political web.

An exiled Tajik opposition member who spoke to Global Voices on conditions of anonymity said that in order to do business in Tajikistan, anyone, be it a foreign or local company or businessman, needs to have some sort of “roof,” i.e. patronage from local or state officials in order to secure business. And this kind of protection is often remunerated by payments or bribes.

One of the lawyers of the international law firms working in Tajikistan who was interviewed for a study on Chinese Cotton Diplomacy in Tajikistan says: “Chinese.. their work rules are different from other [investors]. In the first stage they work closely with us but … after 15 days they contact …officials and they are open to bribes, yes they do not need our services except [for] officials.”

Land lease

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon. Screenshot from YouTube.

Tajikistan has approximately 724,000 hectares of arable land, all of which are heavily reliant on irrigation due to the country’s mountainous terrain. Beginning in 2012, Tajikistan leased around 18,000 hectares of its land to China for cotton, rice, grain, and corn cultivation for a 49-year contract. The agreement was part of a broader initiative to strengthen economic ties between the two countries. 

The main problem with this agreement is that its terms and conditions have not been disclosed. It is not clear what — if any — systems have been implemented regarding inspecting and regulating the lands leased by Chinese farmers. 

In an interview with Radio Ozodi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture, Narzullo Dodoboyev, said the land leased to Chinese farmers are “abandoned lands affected by erosion.” He also said that Chinese companies are going to invest in order to restore this land and start cultivating crops. 

A regional expert who spoke to Global Voices on the condition of anonymity said that “China has a lot of expertise in turning land affected by erosion into a working land, through the ‘terracing method,’ which slows down soil erosion.” 

And indeed, the results yielded by Chinese farmers are quite remarkable. In 2015, Tajikistan's deputy minister of agriculture, Sidjovuddin Isroilov, praised the Chinese company Xinxian Inhai which leased 6,300 hectares of land in the Khatlon region of Tajikistan. In one of its districts, the group cultivated the highest grain and cotton yield in the country.

However, a regional expert who spoke to Global Voices on the condition of anonymity pointed out that “the nature of agriculture in Tajikistan is based on irrigation and water brings weeds which have to be dealt with by using pesticides. Pesticides enter the soil and ultimately end up in water basins, most likely in the Amudarya River,” which flows through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.

The Belt and Road Initiative

China is keen to help Chinese companies develop their work abroad within the framework of “The Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), it's massive international development plan. 

Over the past eight years, China has invested in more than 820 agricultural projects in partner countries, with an investment stock exceeding USD 17 billion. In 2020, the total agricultural trade volume with partner countries reached USD 95.79 billion.

In Tajikistan, these efforts have been a boon for Chinese companies, as they are released from paying VAT when they import equipment and seed materials from China. The Tajik government doesn’t disclose the terms and conditions of these lease agreements.

The Head of a Water Users’ Association (WUA) in southern Tajikistan meets cotton farmers to discuss irrigation requirements. Image from Flickr. License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

On the other hand, independent Tajik farmers have been left at a big disadvantage compared to well-financed Chinese agricultural companies. They have little to no support from the Tajik state. It is also difficult for them to get bank loans to buy modern equipment since they are exclusively offered short-term loans at high interest rates, which makes it nearly impossible for farmers to pay it back.

Fertilizers and pesticides

While China may be benefitting from its agricultural investments, they could be leaving a dangerous legacy in the host countries, namely: long-lasting pollution.

In 2018, the Chinese state agency Xinhua published a story about Chinese farmer Duan Li, whose company, Hunfank, from China's Henan province, invested over USD 31 million in agriculture in Tajikistan. Over 6,000 hectares of land that had been developed by this company became polluted and unsuitable for agriculture. Henan province is the major agricultural and a major food province in China, and some studies show that the vast amounts of chemical fertilizers used there are causing soil and water pollution. 

China, the largest agricultural country in the world, typically uses 1.5 to 4 times as much pesticides per hectare as the world average. Pesticides play an important role in increasing productivity, reducing crop loss by controlling destructive pests and reducing diseases. However, pesticides are frequently linked to risks to soil health, water contamination, human poisoning, and damaging ecosystems. 

Farmers in China also heavily rely on agricultural mulch film, a synthetic polymer compound material that will stay in the soil if it is not cleaned or picked up during agricultural production. 

This problem is not isolated to Tajikistan. A regional expert who is monitoring China's farming practices in Russia, who spoke to Global Voices on the condition of anonymity, says that “Chinese farmers were achieving remarkable crops in Russia, but they used pesticides and other chemicals, which ultimately made the land unusable.” A number of reports in Russian media about the harmful consequences of Chinese farming practices in Russia have corroborated this claim.

Concerned experts

Global Voices approached several agricultural experts in Tajikistan and spoke to journalists who write about agriculture. However, none of them were able to comment on what kind of fertilizers and pesticides are used by Chinese farmers or the scale of their application on the crops. There is no publicly available information on this, and because civil society is deeply repressed in Tajikistan, it is unlikely that any independent research is possible on this matter.

One regional expert who spoke to Global Voices on the condition of anonymity, says that the agreement between Tajikistan and China on land lease “should have included a document about the system of controls of farming methods. But it is very likely that such a document doesn’t exist and that Tajikistan just leased the farming land to China and [is turning] a blind eye on what is going on.”

Because Tajikistan’s agriculture is heavily based on irrigation, ultimately, chemicals and pesticides used to promote crops are washed into the Amudarya river. However, local agriculture specialists point out that “neither Chinese nor Tajik farmers are too concerned about following environmental regulations and it leads to soil alkalization.”

It's undeniable that China's lease of agricultural fields in Tajikistan has led to several positive outcomes. The lease brought investment into the struggling Tajik agricultural sector, providing much-needed capital for local farmers. Chinese companies bring modern agricultural technology that has helped enhance productivity in Tajikistan's cotton sector. Improved methods and resources have also led to higher yields, benefiting the local economy and contributing to Tajikistan's export potential. However, the lack of transparency regarding fertilizers and pesticides poses a major environmental and social threat — one that has yet to be fully explored or understood because of Tajikistan's repressive environment toward media and civil society.