‘Farmers Know Better’ in Turkmenistan · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

The president of Turkmenistan has announced [ru] that a district which would grow most cotton and wheat this year in the natural gas-rich country would receive an award of one million U.S. dollars. An exiled Turkmen blogger comments [ru] angrily:
When will [the Turkmen leader] finally understand that the planned economy is not working? In order for the cotton sector to develop, cotton should be grown by private farms. Wouldn't farmers be able to decide better how much cotton they should sow? Does the [president] sitting on a golden toilet in [the Turkmen capital] Ashgabat really know better how much cotton can be grown in the country than a person working on a field?