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Geography

Tajikistan is a landlocked, mountainous country bordering on Afghanistan, China, Kyrgzstan and Uzbekistan. It has an area of 142,600 km2. The rugged mountains form lush valleys in the south and north. Only 6.5 per cent of the land is arable.

The population is about 6.8 million and is growing at an annual rate of 1.5 per cent. Tajikistan has a continental climate, with extremes of cold in the Pamir Mountains. The country is vulnerable to earthquakes and floods. It suffers from chronic shortages of energy that are particularly severe during the long, cold winters.

Agriculture and the economy

Agriculture contributes about 21 per cent the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP), a share that has gradually declined from 27 per cent in 2000. About half of the population depends on the sector for a livelihood. Cotton is a major crop, but production is declining and cotton farming is barely viable for most farmers.

Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic, is in the process of rebuilding its economy after a five-year civil war that ended in 1997. During the conflict, the country suffered heavy loss of life and physical damage, and the economy took a severe downturn. Economic recovery brought a rise in gross national income (GNI) per capita, which more than doubled from US$820 in 2000 to US$1,710 in 2007. But in recent years the economy has slowed down, and Tajikistan is classified as a debt distress country. The difficult economic and energy situation was aggravated in 2008 by an unusually cold winter that resulted in major disruption of the supply of water and electricity and left mountain villages completely isolated.

Remittances from migrant workers are a crucial source of foreign exchange.

Sources: IFAD, World Bank