Agriculture

Agro-Industrial Complex

The Republic of Tajikistan enjoys a very favorable climate, fertile lands, and abundant water resources, creating a solid foundation for agricultural development. For this reason, the sector has seen significant growth and has become one of the most important sectors of the country's economy.

Currently, the agricultural sector accounts for about 23% of GDP, over 20% of exports, and more than 70% of the country’s employment, highlighting its crucial role in the socio-economic development of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan has 863,000 hectares of irrigated land, of which 600,000 hectares are used for agricultural crops. In the future, with the development of new lands and improvement of land reclamation, the area of arable land could increase to 1.5 million hectares.

Moreover, the favorable climate in various regions of the republic allows for the establishment and restoration of highly productive orchards and vineyards. Their areas are increasing annually on moist hilly lands, and agricultural crops are cultivated in the foothills, fully meeting the needs of the population and processing enterprises for raw materials, with part of the production directed for export.

With the development of horticulture and viticulture, the area of orchards and vineyards has reached 208,400 hectares — 170,100 hectares of orchards and 38,300 hectares of vineyards.

Fruits and vegetables grown in Tajikistan are known for their excellent taste and ecological purity. Annually, the country produces over 1.2 million tons of fruits, 3.2 million tons of vegetables, and 1.3 million tons of legumes, of which more than 50% are exported abroad both fresh and in dried or packaged forms.

The country’s export potential in this sector is very high; however, the lack of agro-logistics centers, cold storage facilities, and other necessary infrastructure prevents the full realization of this potential.

One of the main export crops is cotton, with an annual production volume reaching 400,000 tons. However, the capacity of cotton-processing plants stands at only 125,000 tons, with the remaining raw cotton currently exported. The establishment of clusters in this sector under the "production-to-final processing" model could generate added value.

Alongside crop farming, the republic’s favorable climate has created good conditions for livestock farming, yak breeding, poultry farming, fish farming, and beekeeping, all of which are expanding each year.

With the development of livestock farming, the livestock population has grown to 2.8 million heads of cattle, 7.1 million heads of small livestock, 91,600 horses, 274,300 beehives, and 12 million poultry.

To ensure the population has access to dietary meat, the number of poultry farms has increased to 228, and fish farms to 385.

Innovative mechanization of agriculture plays a significant role in reducing production and supply chain costs. Its introduction, alongside the existing 27,000 units of machinery, is necessary to improve the supply of farms.

At present, a significant portion of the country’s agricultural machinery requires serious modernization to ensure the timely execution of agricultural works and to improve the quality and yields of crops.

Traditional markets for Tajik agricultural products include Russia and Kazakhstan. In recent years, interest from Arab and European countries has also been growing. Additionally, China and India, with their large populations, could become excellent markets for Tajikistan’s agricultural exports.

Investments in Tajikistan’s agricultural sector are considered very profitable, and the existing potential allows investors to generate their own income. Several investment projects are already being implemented with the support of entrepreneurs from China, Japan, and Russia.

The growing demand for food products, existing production capacities, low labor costs, and incentives introduced by the government to develop the agricultural sector have created favorable conditions for investment in this important sector.

Taking all this into account, investments in the following areas of agricultural development are considered particularly attractive:

• clustering value-added chains in agriculture, including the cotton sector;
• investing in the creation of agricultural clusters and agro-parks;
• mechanizing agriculture through the acquisition and modernization of agricultural machinery and equipment;
• investing in infrastructure development, including the construction of warehouses, cold storage facilities, and fruit and vegetable processing plants;
• establishing agro-logistics centers to support the development of agricultural exports.