Posters across Tajikistan show President Emomali Rahmon surrounded by an abundance of fruits and vegetables under the slogan “Ensure food security!”
Achieving that goal seems a long shot in this impoverished Central Asian country, which faces the twin challenges of low agricultural production and climate change.
One third of Tajikistan’s 10 million people are malnourished.
According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), half of the available food is imported, making the country’s food security “subject to severe price fluctuations”.
The government has declared food security a “national strategic objective” and Mr. Rakhmon, who has been in power since 1992, has urged households to keep up to two years’ worth of food reserves in case of an emergency.
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For Tajiks like Zarif Gaforov, a 60-year-old plumber, it’s a tall order.
“We can’t stockpile for two years,” he told AFP in the capital, Dushanbe. “There’s nothing to stockpile. Everything will be destroyed.”
Gaforov said he was stockpiling flour, potatoes, onions and butter in preparation for the winter.
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Speaking at a local supermarket, Mahchuda Obedova said she was stocking up on water, flour and grains “on the president’s advice.”
But stockpiling large amounts of food is impossible for most people in Tajikistan, where the average monthly income is less than 200 euros ($217), the lowest in the former Soviet Union.
“We are buying food every day,” said Mabzuna Chakarova, a 30-year-old nurse. “When I earn more money, I will build up my stockpile.”
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About 60 percent of her household budget goes to food, several times more than in many Western countries.
Climate change is exacerbating the problem: frequent landslides destroy cropland and melting glaciers reduce annual summer runoff, causing water shortages and droughts that can lead to soil erosion.
“The president’s call to increase food reserves is important against the backdrop of climate change,” said Bakodur Rahmonarizoda, an official at Tajikistan’s Food Security Committee.
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“Around 70 percent of Tajikistan’s population lives in rural areas and food availability can be a challenge in the event of a natural disaster,” he said.
For this reason, he said, the government has secretly stockpiled emergency food in various parts of the mountain region.
Compounding the problem is inefficiencies in the agricultural sector, which accounts for about 23 percent of the economy and employs 60 percent of the population, according to international organizations.
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“We must work harder to use land and water efficiently and produce as much as possible,” Rakhmon urged farmers last month.
He also plans to ban food waste as part of the initiative, calling it “an obstacle to improving the quality of life of our people.”
But the president continues to serve up lavish meals.
Foreign leaders are regularly welcomed with metre-high piles of apples, as well as mountains of grapes and melons.
During one such visit in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin was gifted six trucks full of the fruit to mark his 70th birthday.
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