The periphery after the kolkhoz:
State divestment, debt, demoralisation
and demodernisation
in “Kolkhoz-obod”
Irna Hofman
Advert copied by Irna Hofman
Financialization of farming
• Economic principles regulate agriculture
– Credit, debt, investment, futures
– Global land investments: land as a fixed commodity
• ‘Abandoned’ lands:
– Lucrative investment
– Highly contested term
An economic anthropology of debt
• Debt:
– A mode of governance, a disciplining mechanism
– Context-specific causes
– More commonplace effects
• Debt is inherently connected with
– power,
– subjugation
– and dependency
Background of debt
• Farm debt: regular feature in the SU
• Agrarian transition: debt transfer in Tajikistan
– Undercapitalised cotton farming
– Prefinancing schemes by cotton futurists
• 2007: 400 Mio USD Cotton debts:
– Debt chain: farmer>ginnery>bank>international companies
• 2007-9: nation-wide debt pay-off
The local debt puzzle
• Decollectivisation of assets and liabilities
• 2010: From collective to individual debts
• No incentive to pay off, but to continue ‘indebtness’ (20122015)
Farm regulation in the Tajik periphery
• Fictitious debts with subjugating and disciplining
mechanisms
• Interlocking mechanisms, upholding status quo
• Barrier to rural development
Implications of debts
• Abandoned lands
• Irrational resource use/salinization
What flourished throughout the
kolkhoz years (in “Kolkhoz-obod”)
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