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PP RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1740/01 2650950
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 220950Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8628
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE PRIORITY 0046
INFO RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1529
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1798
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1341
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 0096
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 1833
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 1098
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 1829
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 1788
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 0098
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 1817
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 001740 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ECON ELAB PGOV PHUM TI
SUBJECT: TAJIK KIDS ARE PICKIN' COTTON! 
 
REF: DUSHANBE 1667 
 
DUSHANBE 00001740  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  Cotton picking season has descended on Tajikistan, and just 
as in the days of central planning, several reporting districts 
are already exceeding set targets.  According to news reports, 
Kulob region in Khatlon Olbast has yielded over 21,000 tons of 
cotton - 26% of the region's annual target.  Khatlon province 
yielded 95,325 tons of cotton by September 13, which is almost 
70,000 tons more compared to the same period of last year. 
"Looks like a banner year for Khatlon province" reported 
governor Amirsho Miraliyev, who set the task to complete the 
cotton-picking campaign by October 20.  In all, 34,000 cotton 
pickers will work in the Kulob region, and starting on September 
15, "a mass mobilization of all free manpower for the cotton 
harvest will start," according to a source in the Kulob 
agriculture department. 
 
¶2.  In a mildly embarrassing development to the Tajik 
government, however, the Ministry of Agriculture has quietly 
lowered this year's cotton harvest targets by three thousand 
tons to 547,000 tons of raw cotton, according to an exclusive 
Asia-Plus report.  A ministry representative blamed land users 
for turning cotton fields into private gardens and housing 
developments.  Local governments generally force farmers to grow 
cotton on at least 70% of their fields, leading to supply and 
price distortions, massive land erosion, and long-term farming 
debts. 
 
¶3.  Local media has been aflutter with reports of officials 
pulling students out of school to pick cotton.  In an 
election-year gambit, President Rahmonov himself decreed in 
August that students are not to pick cotton this year.  Working 
conditions in the fields are appalling, with paltry wages, and 
minimal labor and living standards.  The president's decree 
recalled that Tajikistan has commitments as a signatory to 
international child labor treaties, and declared that 
educational officials who send students to work in the fields 
will be punished by law, including potential dismissal from 
their positions.  According to media reports, however, local 
authorities in Sughd and Khatlon provinces had sent all higher 
educational institution and senior secondary students to cotton 
plantations.  On September 18, police in Khatlon Oblast actually 
detained several journalists as they attempted to film an 
interview and take photos of students at Qurghon Teppa State 
University heading off for the cotton campaign. 
 
¶4.  With a large percentage of Tajikistan's male workforce 
absent as migrant workers in Russia, women and children form the 
bulk of the cotton-picking workforce.  A hukumat (local 
government) representative in Qhurgon-Teppa sent a letter to the 
local Indigo cellular phone company office instructing the 
office to send one person from Indigo for 10 days picking cotton 
without pay and without provisions.  According to some press 
reports, students are being forced to go to cotton plantations; 
other reports adamantly stress that students labor by their own 
free will. 
 
¶5.  In the Rudaki district near Dushanbe on a hot afternoon 
September 20, EmbOffs found few children working in the fields. 
Private farmers hire mostly women to pick 20-50 kilograms of 
cotton a day, paying them $.03-$04 per kilogram (the rate goes 
up during Ramadan).  For three months of labor, these women and 
children will earn $120-$150 each.  Farmers sell the raw cotton 
for $260-$280/ton to a local ginnery.  According to one small 
farmer with 31 hectares of land, youth only work for him after 
school or on weekends. 
 
¶6.  In agricultural Tajikistan, cotton is truly the fabric of 
their lives.  Cotton and textile products contribute 20% of 
Tajik exports according to the Asian Development Bank, while 
cotton accounts for 10% of exports, and supports 75% of farm 
households on 250,000 hectares, according to the State Committee 
for Statistics.  Tajikistan produces up to 550,000 tons of raw 
cotton each year, which after the ginning process winnows down 
to 150,000 tons of cotton fiber for export.  Only 12-14% goes to 
Tajik textile manufacturers for processing in Tajikistan 
(reftel).  Remaining cotton seeds are squeezed into cottonseed 
oil which lends a distinct flavor to the national dish "plov". 
 
 
 
DUSHANBE 00001740  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
JACOBSON 
HOAGLAND