EurasiaNet.Org
June 21
n what has developed into an annual event of summer, Uzbek authorities have mobilized students and workers to help cultivate and harvest the cotton crop. The continued reliance on the Soviet-era practice underscores the dire state of Uzbekistan’s agricultural sector. The government’s action also is stoking discontent among those drafted into "volunteer" labor brigades.
Officials in Tashkent this year are reportedly exerting greater pressure on regional officials to fulfill harvest quotas than in past years. In the Djizaksky Region, one of the major cotton-growing centers in Uzbekistan, local authorities responded by declaring the period from May 30-June 10 as the "breakthrough period." The head of the local Agricultural Secretariat, Hudoior Mirzabekov indicated that failure to reach harvest targets would likely result in a purge of the local leadership.
With Tashkent’s tacit approval, Djizaksky regional officials have forced several thousand university and high school students to work in cotton fields, instead of completing second semester final exams.
Public-sector workers, including medical staff at clinics and hospitals, have also been dispatched to help with the harvest. "Every summer, during sowing or harvesting of cotton, hospitals and local medical stations become depopulated," a gynecologist in one of the hospitals said. Djizaksky regional officials have also pressed private-sector drivers into service to ferry temporary harvesters to and from the fields.
"Volunteering" for the cotton harvest is not a new phenomenon for Uzbeks. Students and workers often found themselves enlisted into labor brigades during the Soviet era. But local observers say that since Uzbekistan gained independence in 1992, working conditions for these mobilized workers have become progressively worse. During the Soviet era, the government paid modest stipends and food to the temporary harvesters. These days, the students and workers do not receive compensation for "volunteer" labor in the fields.
In addition, students and workers now are engaged in both the cultivation and harvesting of crops, whereas in Soviet times extra help was needed only to gather the crops. Declining standards also have contributed to rising occupational hazards. In 2001, for instance, three students died and 12 others were injured in the Djizaksky Region during the harvest season in an accident involving transport truck. Local observers report that the increased hardships have produced growing antipathy for the system among the population.
Cotton is one of the building blocks of Uzbekistan’s economy, with exports in 2000 infusing about $900 million into the country’s economy. The agricultural sector in general, and the cotton sector in particular, are labor and water intensive, and plagued by structural inefficiencies.
The elements have also hampered Uzbek agriculture. Efforts to improve output have been hindered in recent years by a severe drought. Earlier this year, a brief but intense period of rain disrupted cotton planting. Officials have yet to release a full assessment on the damage caused by the flash flooding.
Aiming to improve yields, the Uzbek government has expressed interest in privatizing about 40 percent of the cotton sector. International donors have also encouraged agricultural sector improvements. For example, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development recently extended a $36 million credit to improve the country’s irrigation network. But the sector’s continuing dependence on temporary harvesters indicates that reforms are a long way from producing desired results.