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The leaders of agricultural associations are demanding bribes from tenants for permission to grow more profitable crops instead of cotton – vegetables, melons, fodder and garden crops. Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report this.

This is how the government’s decision to reduce the area sown to cotton and transfer the vacated land to the cultivation of food crops is being implemented locally.

In 2022, the area for growing cotton  will be reduced  by 40,000 hectares, from 620,000 to 580,000 hectares. The collection plan will not change. According to Deputy Prime Minister  Esenmyrat Orazgeldiyev, who is in charge of the agro-industrial complex , it will be carried out “by increasing the yield” of cotton.

In the Sayat, Chardzhev, Dyanev, Khalach etraps of the Lebap velayat, tenants were demanded a bribe of 20,000 to 30,000 manats ($1,000-1,500 at the black market rate) per hectare.