About half of the country’s population is poor. The difficult transition after independence, the long civil war and recurring natural disasters have resulted in widespread poverty, particularly among rural people. About 50 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for a livelihood, and most farmers lack access to adequate inputs, resources, technology and markets.
Social services such as health and education are deteriorating, and key social indicators have declined. Food security is at risk because of rising global prices for wheat and other staples, and in the wake of a reduced harvest in 2007 as a result of drought and an invasion of locusts.
Large numbers of workers have migrated to seek wage employment in Russia and in other countries of the former Soviet Union, depleting the country’s human capital. But their remittances, estimated to amount to about 36 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), have boosted incomes and have helped reduce poverty in the households they left behind.
Who are the country’s poor people?
Poverty affects rural people who are landless or who barely eke out a subsistence on small household plots. Poor rural people also include subsistence farmers and those who are unemployed, underemployed or self-employed.
Where are they and why are they poor?
The poorest people in the country are in the Khation region, where 78 per cent of the population lives under the national poverty line. Most of the region’s farmers are poor because their productivity is low. They cannot make an adequate income from their agricultural activities. The land is degraded, the availability of inputs and credit is limited, irrigation facilities are lacking, and access to improved technologies and markets is poor.
Source: IFAD, World Bank
http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/tajikistan