Apricot orchard owners in the Ahsht district of the Sughd region are facing difficulties during the harvest due to a lack of workers.
The Asia-Plus agency noted in its article on August 22, 2024, that due to a high level of labor migration, there are almost no workers available to harvest apricots, and the wages for hired labor have skyrocketed, forcing orchard owners to give away half of their harvest for free. This practice has been dubbed “50/50” by the locals.
According to the orchard owners, maintaining an orchard is currently unprofitable. “In fact, those without land are the ones benefiting: they do not spend on taxes, do not have to worry about irrigation and fertilization. They only need to harvest the crop. Farmers, on the other hand, lose half of their profits, and the remaining funds are reinvested into their orchards. They are forced to take such extreme measures just to prevent the harvest from rotting,” one of the orchard owners told Asia-Plus.