Agricultural production in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015 - 2023


Book Description

This report presents findings related to changes in household agricultural production between 2015 and 2023 in the twelve districts of Khatlon Province that constitute USAID’s Zone of Influence (ZOI). The analysis relies on household survey data from 2000 households interviewed in February-March 2023, and similar household survey data from 2000 households interviewed in February-March 2015.







Welfare and vulnerability in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015 - 2023


Book Description

In February-March 2023, 2,000 households were interviewed about their socio-economic conditions in twelve districts of Khatlon Province which constitute USAID’s Zone of Influence (ZOI). Based on these recent survey data as well as former survey data from 2015 and 2012, we present findings here related to changes in poverty over the past eight to ten years. Key findings - Housing conditions improved, indicating improved living conditions. Only 1 percent of households had improved sanitation in 2015, but nearly half (49 percent) of all households did so in 2023. - Fewer households experience hunger in 2023 than in 2015. Fewer households reported having had no food in the home at least once in the past month (40 percent in 2015 vs. 27 percent in 2023), and household hunger scores declined (from 0.667 in 2015 to 0.523 in 2023). - Expenditures on food increased, but these were used to purchase more expensive food rather than improving dietary quality. Consumption patterns mainly shifted towards more expensive sources of protein, i.e. the consumption of meat, chicken and fish. Consumption of other food groups, however, reduced. This led to a stagnation in diet diversity among women of which 30 percent have inadequate dietary diversity. Women have significantly worse dietary quality than men but household consumption patterns do show improvements over time. - Total consumption expenditures increased nearly ten percent (in real terms) between 2015 and 2023, which is also accompanied by a significant drop in poverty over that period, from 39.1 per-cent to 28.7 percent. - Movements of households in and out of poverty and fluctuations in household food security status between 2015 and 2023 suggest that a significant share of households are at risk of falling back into poverty in the face of adversity. - Correlates with consumption expenditures, poverty, and the prosperity gap demonstrate that households with more household members, with fewer livelihood sources, and in more remote locations are worse off. Households with more women are more likely to be poor given women’s limited income-generating opportunities. - Households that participated in agriculture development activities were approximately 12.7 per-cent more likely to move out of poverty than other households




Nutrition-sensitive agriculture diversification and dietary diversity: Panel data evidence from Tajikistan


Book Description

Nutrition-sensitive agricultural diversification continues to receive interest among developing country stakeholders as a viable option for achieving dual goals of poverty reduction and food/nutrition security improvements. Assessing the effectiveness of this strategy is also essential in countries like Tajikistan. We attempt to enrich the evidence base in this regard. We assess the linkages between household-level agricultural diversification and dietary diversity (both household- and individual-levels) using unique panel samples of households and individual women of reproductive ages in the Khatlon province. Using difference-in-difference propensity-score methods and panel fixed-effects instrumental variable regressions, we show that higher agricultural diversification together with greater overall production per worker and land at the household level leads to higher dietary diversity, particularly in areas with poor food market access. Typology analyses and crop-specific analyses suggest that vegetables, fruits, legumes/nuts/seeds, dairy products and eggs are particularly important commodities for which a farmer’s own production contributes to dietary diversity improvement. Furthermore, decomposition exercises within the subsistence farming framework suggest that nutritional returns and costs of agricultural diversification vary across households, and expected nutritional returns may be partly driving the adoption of agricultural diversification. In other words, households’ decisions to diversify agriculture may be partly driven by potential nutritional benefits associated with enhanced direct on-farm access to diverse food items rather than farm income growth alone. Our findings underscore the importance of supporting household farm diversification in Tajikistan to support improved nutrition intake, especially among those living in remote areas. In a low-income setting with limited local employment opportunities that is vulnerable to a wide range of external shocks, this will likely continue to be one of the most straightforward and realistic paths to improving household’s nutrition resilience.




Agriculture-nutrition linkages, cooking-time, intra-household equality among women and children: Evidence from Tajikistan


Book Description

Household-level agriculture-nutrition linkage (ANL) tends to be strong in a rural subsistence setting with limited access to the food market. In such a context, markets for food processing services also may be imperfect, and consequently a household’s time-investments in cooking may become important. Using the primary data in Tajikistan, we show that longer periods of time dedicated to cooking by women in the household often significantly enhance household-level ANL. Furthermore, an increase in the diversity, scale, and efficiency of household production, as well as longer cooking time, can also reduce intrahousehold inequality in nutritional outcomes among women and children. These effects are stronger in areas with lower nighttime light intensity and for households with lower values of cooking assets. In a context where household-level ANL is strong, ANL may also depend on households’ self-production of complementary inputs, including cooking services. This dependence reveals both unique opportunities for and vulnerabilities of ANL for the rural poor.







Strengthening Support for Labor Migration in Tajikistan


Book Description

Migration for work is an important livelihood option for many households in Tajikistan due to limited job opportunities. Remittances from migrant workers significantly supplement the country’s foreign currency reserves, but the economic crisis and worldwide shutdown induced by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have caused international migration flows to fall, and remittances are projected to decline significantly. This publication reviews the state of international migration out of Tajikistan and identifies the impact of COVID-19 on the movement of people and migrant workers, in particular. It also reviews international best practices and proposes appropriate predeparture programs, post-return services for Tajik migrants, and ways to address migrate worker issues related to the pandemic.




Lost Enlightenment


Book Description

The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment—its rise, fall, and enduring legacy In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds—remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia—drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America—five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.




Gypsies in Central Asia and the Caucasus


Book Description

This book explores diverse communities living in Central Asia and the Caucasus, who are generally gathered under the umbrella term of ‘Gypsies’, their multidimensional identities, self-appellations and labels given to them by surrounding populations, researcher and policy-makers. The book presents various Gypsy and Gypsy-like communities and provides a comprehensive review of their history, demography, ways of life, past and present occupations, and contemporary migration in post-Soviet space. The authors situate these communities in historical settings and also in the wider context of contemporary evolving global and areal developments. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of history, sociology, social anthropology, nationalities studies, global and Central Asia and Caucasus areal studies, and Gypsy/Romani studies, and also for policy-makers and civic organizations.




Water Governance: Retheorizing Politics


Book Description

This republished Special Issue highlights recent and emergent concepts and approaches to water governance that re-centers the political in relation to water-related decision making, use, and management. To do so at once is to focus on diverse ontologies, meanings and values of water, and related contestations regarding its use, or its importance for livelihoods, identity, or place-making. Building on insights from science and technology studies, feminist, and postcolonial approaches, we engage broadly with the ways that water-related decision making is often depoliticized and evacuated of political content or meaning—and to what effect. Key themes that emerged from the contributions include the politics of water infrastructure and insecurity; participatory politics and multi-scalar governance dynamics; politics related to emergent technologies of water (bottled or packaged water, and water desalination); and Indigenous water governance.