Ms. Adolat Berdieva produces cherry tomato in a low-cost greenhouse she built herself. She’s part of the effort to extend the growing season for fresh produce in Tajikistan and ensure nutritious vegetables are available and affordable for a large part of the year. With processing, the season can go on even longer.  

The Khatlon region is well-known in Tajikistan for producing vegetables, especially early-season vegetables in high demand at markets across the country. Ms. Adolat Berdieva, an experienced household farmer in Madaniyat village, Jamoat “Vakhdati Milli” of Jayhun district, has been growing vegetables for more than 10 years—all by herself, as her husband was a migrant laborer in Russia.

In 2018, USAID’s Tajikistan Nutrition-Sensitive Vegetable Technologies Project, implemented by the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) started working with women’s groups in the region, which is in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence. Ms. Berdieva actively participated in farmer field days and training sessions hosted by the project. She received healthy cherry tomato seedlings from a vegetable seedling producer, Ms. Faizi Rustamova, who also was trained through the WorldVeg project.

Using locally available materials, Ms. Berdieva built a low-cost 180 m2 greenhouse following a design shared by project staff. She planted cherry tomato (variety ‘Tainan-Yasu No. 19’ introduced from Taiwan) in the first half of February 2020 in her new greenhouse. Her first harvest of the tiny, tasty, nutrient-packed tomato fruit began in early May and continued through mid-September.

Being able to enjoy such a long growing season was a new experience for Ms. Berdieva and for Tajikistan as well. Generally, production of local tomato varieties lasts only through the middle of July.

Ms. Berdieva harvested 3,920 kg of cherry tomato from her greenhouse, and sold 2,900 kg to local markets at an average price of 5.00 Tajik somoni/kg, generating an income of 14,500 Tajik somoni (US$ 1,405). The yield per cherry tomato plant was 4.9 kg or 21.7 kg/m2.

The Berdieva family consumed 1,020 kg of cherry tomatoes, eating some fresh, canning and drying the remainder. With the skills she learned during training on food processing, Ms. Berdieva and other project beneficiaries, especially women, made cherry tomatoes jam and pickles, and dried the fruit for longer storage. Ms. Berdieva’s success has inspired her neighbors to grow cherry tomato in greenhouses using new vegetable production technologies.