Tajikistan leased around 18,000 hectares of its land to China for cotton, rice, grain, and corn cultivation for a 49-year contract. The agreement was part of a broader initiative to strengthen economic ties between the two countries.
Tajikistan's Foreign Minister says his country was ready to help Iran with extraterritorial farming in the face of the constraints of worsening land and water resources in Iran.
The Central Asia region has become a hot investment destination for Chinese agricultural firms, such as Huangfanqu Farm in Tajikistan.
China’s Xinyang Inhai company has rented 6,300 hectares of farmland in the Dangara and Yovon districts of the Khatlon province for cultivation of cotton and cereals.
A controversial plan approved by Tajikistan’s Ministry of Agriculture to lease 6,000 hectares of land to China for development has been met with suspicion by some members of the country’s political opposition
Tajikistan says it will allow Chinese farmers to rent 200ha of southern Tajik farmland.
Deal adds to anger over decision just a week earlier to cede some 1,100 square kilometers of Tajik land to China.
"Finance Minister Yousef Hussein Kamal said he had personally been traveling to Vietnam, Cambodia, Yemen, Sudan, Tajikistan, and elsewhere to look into investing in agricultural production for the Qatari market," reports the US Embassy in Doha about a visit from US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
