Heroes Against Hunger

Saltanat's Story

Saltanat used Mercy Corps trainings and tools to harvest 1,100 pounds of cucumbers in a small greenhouse. She's already purchased another third of an acre to accommodate more greenhouses, and is working on a plan to heat them using biogas. Photo: Svetlana Shegai/Mercy Corps

Nooken District, Jalal-Abad Province, Kyrgyzstan — Tour 56-year-old Saltanat Sultanova's rural compound and you'll see living space for chickens and geese, a goat and stocks of brushwood next to the clay oven. But you're most likely to find Saltanat in her greenhouse, which is swelling with plump cucumbers.

Today the greenhouse is swelling with plump cucumbers — a testament to the work she's invested since enrolling in a Mercy Corps program to boost rural incomes.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet Union essentially turned Central Asia into a huge cotton plantation. As a result, the region became one of the worlds biggest cotton producers.

These days, farmers in Kyrgyzstan's Nooken District continue to grow cotton, but the price falls every year. And those who shift to more lucrative crops such as cucumbers, tomatoes and herbs find it difficult to compete with imports from neighboring Uzbekistan.

"We have flat and fertile land to cultivate cucumbers and tomatoes," Saltanat explains, "but we lacked technical skills."

Enter Mercy Corps' Demonstration Field and Greenhouse project, an effort to help farmers from seven communities diversify their crops and improve the quality and quantity of their yields.

Photo: Svetlana Shegai/Mercy Corps

Saltanat learned how to cultivate greenhouse vegetables, maintain a hothouse, protect her crops and perform basic accounting. Mercy Corps also provided the frames to erect a 1,000-square-foot greenhouse.

The payoff was immediate: In one month, Saltanat harvested more than 1,100 pounds of cucumbers in that small greenhouse. She expects double the amount next season — and says there is consumer demand for all of it. She's already purchased another third of an acre to accommodate more greenhouses, and is working on a plan to heat them using biogas.

"Our cucumbers have no chemicals, they taste better, and they're fresher than the ones from Uzbekistan," she says. "But what really makes our products better is the care we tend the greenhouse with. You enter the greenhouse, see bushes and rejoice at the fruit of your labor."