BY: KARL PUCKETT
Dilovar Loikzoda Sherali of Tajikistan says
farmers in the former Soviet republic in Central Asia have something to learn
from Montana farmers.
"How can you cultivate crops on dry
land?" said Sherali, director of the Farm Institute's Agricultural
Experiment Station in the city of Panjakent.
A delegation of agriculture producers and
researchers from Tajikistan arrived in Great Falls on Saturday.
Its members are touring the region seeking
information about dry-land farming, GPS systems, agricultural research and
other methods farmers use here to turn less-than-ideal growing conditions to
their favor.
On Tuesday, they visited a farm outside of
Great Falls.
The researchers and producers said they want
to apply efficiencies in place here, used to grow world-class wheat and other
grains, in Tajikistan.
"They are like sponges," Robin
Baker of Great Falls said of the curiosity of the group's members.
Baker is a volunteer with the city's
international advisory commission, which regularly hosts Open World delegations
such as the one from Tajikistan.
Open World is funded by the U.S. Library of
Congress. It brings delegations of young leaders from former Soviet republics
to the United States to gain experience in a variety of areas, such as
agriculture, said Anora Akbarova, an Open World program specialist.
"We just see it as part of our mission
to help promote cultural understanding in the city," Baker said.
Muhiddin Sharipov, manager of the Agriculture
Information Service of Tajikistan, said the country broke away from the Soviet
Union in 1991. It shares its southern border with Afghanistan, and China abuts
the country in the east.
Today, the government and private sector are
trying to build a partnership in reforming agriculture, Sharipov said.
"Our main aim, through that program, is
to diversify agriculture products," said Sharipov, sporting a Montana
Farmers Union T-shirt.
Tajikistan's main crop today is cotton. In
pre-Soviet days, the country produced more fruits and vegetables.
Speaking through a translator, Sherali
explained that he wanted to see first-hand how Montana agriculture producers
can grow barley and wheat, and grass for cattle, with limited moisture and
difficult weather conditions.
Tajikistan has similar growing challenges, he
said. Mountains cover 93 percent of the country, and less than 1 percent of the
flatter land is irrigated, prompting Sherali's interest in dry-land and
"no-till" farming. Dry-land techniques are used in areas without
irrigation. No-till is a farming technique that doesn't require turning the
soil.
Sherali's impressions of Montana producers,
he said, are that they are "hard-working, good farmers."
"They are not scared of difficulties and
challenges they can face," he said.
So far, members of the group have visited the
Malteurop plant, which makes malt out of barley, and inspected combines with
precision equipment at Triangle Sales Ag-Services in Fort Benton. They've also
checked out the state of Montana grain lab.
Today the schedule includes the Montana State
University agricultural research station at Moccasin, and the group will head
to the Big Stone Hutterite Colony Thursday. On Friday, they will be at Charlie
Baumgardner's dry-land wheat farm east of Great Falls. Departure is Saturday.
On Tuesday afternoon, the five members of the
delegation and a facilitator and translator arrived by van at the farm of Eric
and Audra Bergman on McIver Road.
They sat in folding chairs at the side of the
farmhouse to hear presentations from Eric Bergman and Mike Dalton, the
executive director of a not-for-profit called Gardens from Garbage. Each time
they spoke, a translator turned to the group, speaking in either Russian or
Tajik.
Bergman is a direct-market farmer who markets
vegetables, range-raised pork and broiler chickens. The group peppered him with
questions on financing, water sources and the government's involvement in U.S.
agriculture, among others.
"Our prices are more set by the competition,"
Bergman explained at one point.
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