Towards a geography of window dressing and benign neglect: The state, donors and elites in Tajikistan’s trajectories of post-Soviet agrarian change

Seeds of empire or seeds of friendship? The politics of the diffusion of Chinese cotton seeds in Tajikistan

“…The area allocated to cotton production (exclusively irrigated) has declined since 1991, from over 35% of all arable land in 1991 (299,000 ha), to 22% (186,000 ha) in 2019 (TajStat, 2020). The cotton sector is officially liberalized, but it is controlled by political and economic elites who have been playing a significant role in shaping reforms of the cotton sector since the 1990s (Boboyorov, 2013;Hofman, 2018Hofman, , 2021cHofman & Visser, 2021). The Tajik state continues to disseminate production plans from the top down.…”

“…Alongside an informal seed sector, a state‐controlled seed system was founded with the building of the Soviet agricultural planned economy. The breakdown of the Soviet Union and Tajikistan's Civil War (1992–97) had a huge impact on the country's rural economy (Burns, 2020; Hofman & Visser, 2021), including on the state's capacity to coordinate agricultural supply chains. A large and expanding cohort of international organizations entered Tajikistan in the 1990s, both to support a transformation towards a market economy and to provide humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the war (Hofman & Visser, 2021).…”

“…The breakdown of the Soviet Union and Tajikistan's Civil War (1992–97) had a huge impact on the country's rural economy (Burns, 2020; Hofman & Visser, 2021), including on the state's capacity to coordinate agricultural supply chains. A large and expanding cohort of international organizations entered Tajikistan in the 1990s, both to support a transformation towards a market economy and to provide humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the war (Hofman & Visser, 2021). From the early post‐war years onwards, rural development projects have included interventions focussed on specific segments of the seed sector (FAO, 2009; Muminjanov et al, 2008).…”

“…In response to the pressure from the International Financial Institutions in the early 1990s, the Tajik state transformed the state planned cotton economy into a private planned economy (Hofman, 2018; Hofman & Visser, 2021; Van Atta, 2009). In practice, it merely came down to a nominal transfer of mandates and control from the state to a select number of elite‐run companies.…”

Exploring Changes in Land Use and Landscape Ecological Risk in Key Regions of the Belt and Road Initiative Countries

“…There are many mountains in the country, soil fertility is poor, and arable land accounts for only 6.1% of the land area. In addition, the reduction of agricultural investment leads to the abandonment of some agricultural land that is already in short supply, and the arable land area shows a decreasing trend [62][63][64]. Aligned with the BRI, although China and Tajikistan have made some progress in agricultural cooperation, the agricultural development of Tajikistan is still facing great challenges due to its poor agricultural resources and backward agricultural technology.…”