Feeding a hunger

for solutions in

rural Tajikistan

FOR THE AGA KHAN FOUNDATION OF CANADA

APRIL 2, 2017

High in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan,

Navras Nekushoev, an ingenious engineer,

shows how unleashing local entrepreneurship

can protect the environment and fortify food

him to capture and recycle used motor oil to heat greenhouses,

keeping contaminants out of the soil and groundwater. He

built a clean, safe oil changing station for motorists. The oil

in turn allows the greenhouses to operate through the cold

mountain winters, producing three crops per year of tomatoes,

cucumbers, and assorted leaf vegetables, and providing a reliable

supply of locally grown produce for remote communities.

Feeding a hunger for solutions in rural Tajikistan

Climate, Quakes and Security

The border area straddling Tajikistan and Afghanistan faces

and crop loss feed a vicious cycle of poverty, poor diets and

malnutrition that leave vulnerable populations more likely to

take desperate action with long term consequences, such as

deforesting mountain slopes. Complicating matters for project

workers is the long history of regional instability and tension in the

border region where smuggling and other illicit activities are

endemic, making cross-border cooperation difficult to cultivate.

The Project

The Aga Khan Foundation Tajikistan’s Mountain Societies

Development Support Programme (MSDSP) is working with civil

change than men. They marry young and have many children,

hampering their abilities to fend for themselves. Providing them

with training and skills in sustainable businesses such as grading

and drying fruit using advanced techniques that augment

traditional knowledge, allows them to build economic resilience to

the vagaries of climate change while also protecting valuable fruit

the hardship and waste of trying to eke out a merger living from

local fruits before being introduced to modern methods: “We used

to spend almost all our time during the summer and autumn

living out of it ... we often gave it away ... for a very small price.”

Giving women these tools of knowledge can make a profound differ-

ence in their lives and those of their communities. Today, things are

plant of apricot ... This

is the power of business.

price ... and now we sell just one package, which is normally 500

Winter Greenhouse

The mountain greenhouse project illustrates how a single

innovation can cause a positive feedback of benefits. Only 26 years

old, Nekushoev has already achieved much. After receiving his

education in Russia and Tajikistan, he began work designing

about from observing that a local problem — mechanics shops

not properly disposing of used oil, could help solve another —

heating the greenhouse without cutting and burning wood.

Diverting oil to augment the solar-electric heat in the greenhouse

First, he had to make arrangements with mechanics to collect it, and

he even built his own roadside change-pit to attract drivers. Once

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Feeding a hunger for solutions in rural Tajikistan

Old and new oil changing stations

collected, the oil had to be used sparingly due to additives and foul-

ing from use that could pose a threat to workers and the produce.

He overcame this problem with a custom-built stove that incorpo-

rated 2-stage filtration and careful exhausting. The oil stove only

burns a drop at a time, and, when used to augment the conventional

coal heat, provides the on-demand temperature boost needed to

the use of insulating materials suitable to the cold mountain en-

vironment and adopting a modular design that can be disassem-

a film on water that impedes oxygenation and photosynthesis. If it

reaches water-treatment plants it can cause serious damage. In fact,

according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a single

litre of oil can pollute a million litres of fresh water. After only a few

months of operation, Nekushoev’s greenhouse is already diverting

over 50 litres of oil per week that would otherwise be released into

the environment. Impressive as this is, the environmental bene-

fits go further. Both the demands of heating and of conventional

agriculture put pressure on local forests and wood lots. By intro-

ducing a new heat source and more intensive, year-round agricul-

ture, his innovative greenhouse reduces pressure on both fronts.

Nekushoev’s entrepreneurship is having positive social impacts in

the local community. Fresh produce is scarce and expensive in the

mountains from late September to the beginning of June, and has

providing fresh and nutritious tomatoes, cucumbers and green leaf

vegetables at reasonable prices even in the depths of winter.

new, achieving the most effective outcomes. Adab Abdulkodirov,

Program Officer relates that

“

“indigenous knowledge is invaluable

Looking Forward

As people in the border region of Tajikistan learn innovative

new techniques for earning sustainable rural livelihoods,

they share these ideas with friends and neighbours, sewing

the seeds of more innovation and entrepreneurship. For

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Feeding a hunger for solutions in rural Tajikistan

example, many of the women who learned about diversified

food processing in turn taught neighbours with larger

holdings and more opportunities to achieve economic scale.

And Nekushoev, the industrious engineer, is working with

agronomists to raise productivity, while, at the same time, finding

ways to lower construction costs. His hope is to standardize his

model so it can be repeated by others while improving efficiency