Agriculture—Central Asia
The five Central Asian republics (CARs: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan) were prime suppliers of agricultural products, metals, and minerals to population centers in the Soviet Union. After independence in 1991, farm production fell during the efforts to restructure the inefficient and highly subsidized agricultural sector.
Monoculture Farming
Before independence the CARs provided the Soviet Union with 90 percent of its cotton needs, 15 percent of its vegetable oils, nearly 50 percent of its rice, and 35 percent of its fruits and vegetables. In turn the CARs imported grain, meat, dairy products, and sugar from the Soviet Union. Then and now the CARs depend on their agriculture sectors, which are prime employers and contributors to economic growth. (See Table 1.)
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, farm production and overall economic growth in Central Asia have dropped precipitously. (See Table 2.) This terrible economic performance has increased the level of poverty in the CARs, and the productivity of labor in farming has declined.
In the context of the Soviet Union, the CARs were never meant to be integrated, stand-alone economies. Rather, they were set up to be primary product producers for the more industrialized republics.
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