Madison County Hosts Tour for Visiting Farmers from Uzbekistan

by Deryl Sharp, Soil Conservation Technician, Huntsville Field Office, AL

Someone said, "Don’t judge your potential by how well you compare with your neighbors. They may have learned the same place you did." This is something a group of nine cotton and wheat farmers from Uzbekistan took to heart in early June.

The Madison County Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office had the opportunity to host, along with US Agency for International Development and the University of Alabama Huntsville, a tour for visiting Uzbekistan farmers.

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union. The tour included a variety of north Alabama farms and agribusinesses. The visit included several cotton and grain farms, a dairy, a fruit and vegetable farm, a cotton gin, grain elevator, equipment dealer, and financial business.  The tour included the local NRCS office where we talked about the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, and other ways we work with farmers.

We arranged meetings with Alabama Farmers Federation and Auburn University to talk about the legislative process and irrigation. I have been on a number of farm tours but never have I been on a farm tour where the group was so thirsty for knowledge. They came with pen and paper in hand, taking notes at every stop.

Communication was difficult since none of the group spoke English, but as soon as we visited the first cotton field, it was apparent we had a lot in common and they knew something about cotton. They immediately began counting nodes to check squaring and looking for insects. Private farming is a new concept in Uzbekistan. The size varied from 80 hectares (200 acres) to 30 hectares (75 acres). The state actually owns the land, but, starting about five years ago, the state began leasing land to individuals in a 50-year lease. The state then contracts with the individual to grow the crops and buys the crop from the farmer. The land is all furrow irrigated with water supplied by the state. Modern machinery handles the primary tillage, but hand labor finishes the crop. The 80 hectare farm had 42 employees. Very few chemicals are used and the crop is picked entirely by hand. Yields are around 3 bales per acre.

Conservation Tillage is a new concept to them. Why are you planting cotton is wheat stubble? How do you keep the ground from getting hard? How do you control the weeds? Sound familiar? These are just a few of the questions asked as they looked at a new way to farm.

Before they left, they had put together an action plan to implement some of the things they learned. This included one vowing to start a new dairy. They came here to learn from us, but they also taught us. We have all of the technology but their yields are comparable or greater than ours in some cases. They have made the most from an abundant labor force. Now they are looking to us for technology to take them to the next level.

The world continues to get smaller in many ways, and as we get the chance to interact with people from other lands, we may see that we are more alike than we thought. That may be a lesson everyone should learn.

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