A Bitter Harvest: The Social Costs of Central Asia's Cotton Monoculture

At a presentation sponsored by OSI's Central Eurasia Project, International Crisis Group analyst Michael Hall discussed cotton production in Central Asia in the context of politics, exploitation, and the environment. In the past, Uzbekistan in particular has seen annual harvests of cotton by conscripted student labor, who are given little compensation for their efforts. Human rights advocates have criticized the workers' conditions there, citing spoiled food, unheated barracks, and the lack of a proper water supply as major concerns. Uzbekistan is the second-largest exporter of cotton in the world and the crop provides the bulk of the country's hard currency funds.

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