Constraints and Barriers to Better Land Stewardship: Analysis of PRAs in Tajikistan

Abstract

This chapter reports on a PRA survey of 710 people in 10 separate rural villages in five districts of south central Tajikistan. This is a mountainous country in Central Asia, with 93% of its surface area taken up by a complex of east-west and north-south ranges. Almost half of the country is at altitudes of more than 3,000 m. Tajikistan is an agrarian country with a rural population more than 75% of the total and in which the agricultural sector accounts for 65% of employment and around 25% of GDP (averages for 1995–2009). Tajikistan remains the poorest country in Central Asia with a high level of rural poverty. Many rural people live below the poverty line ($2.15 per day).