Farmland GrabDUSHANBE (TCA) — Chinese investors are renting more than 6,300 hectares of arable land to grow agricultural crops in the Khatlon province in southern Tajikistan, Avesta news agency reported citing Sijovuddin Isroilov, deputy minister of agriculture of Tajikistan.
China’s Xinyang Inhai company has rented 6,300 hectares of farmland in the Dangara and Yovon districts of the Khatlon province, Isroilov told a press conference on Thursday, adding that this land has been allocated for cultivation of cotton and cereals.
According to Tajikistan’s Agriculture Ministry, the Chinese farmers working in Tajikistan intend to rent arid land in the Kumsangir district of the Khatlon province.
Xinyang Inhai is the only Chinese farming company working in Tajikistan. The company has introduced the latest agricultural technologies to make the fields productive and efficient.
In the Yovon district, the Chinese company has grown wheat on 80 hectares, receiving a yield of 7000 kg per hectare. The yield of cotton was 5000 kg per hectare, the highest yield in Tajikistan.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, the Chinese investors are meeting all the requirements to the use of mineral and chemical fertilizers, to avoid land degradation. The total area of arable land in Tajikistan is around 865,000 hectares.
Last November it was reported that China’s Henan province will invest $800 million in the agricultural sector of Tajikistan according to the agreement signed in Beijing during a meeting between Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon and the Governor of the Henan province, Xie Fuzhan.
Chinese investments will fund construction of facilities to process agricultural produce in Tajikistan, to build a flour plant, a mineral fertilizer plant, a vegetable oil plant, as well as agricultural machinery and fodder plants, Tajik media reported.
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