Khujand is on the edge of the Ferghana Valley which is one of the most fertile valleys in all of central Asia. The Russians, for their own reasons, drew the central Asian republics in peculiar fashion. One good example of this is that three countries share parts of the Ferghana Valley: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. It was easy to be impressed with the agriculture in the Ferghana Valley.

You can see us leaving Khujand in the first photo. The Ferghana Valley is the only place that we saw them growing rice, which takes a lot of water. They obviously have plenty of water here. Those are rice patties in the first photo.

The second photo looks very similar but we were passing rice patties for a long time including well after we left Khujand. We were on our way to Dushanbe, so heading south. There were quite a few villages with all the agricultural work going here.

You can see an apricot orchard in the third photo. We almost never saw a fruit tree that had been pruned. These trees were probably around forty feet tall. They either shake the tree or wait for the fruit to drop, very unlike what we do at home. On the other hand, I keep telling Vicky that I’m doing way too much work at home in our orchard.

We saw quite a few greenhouses in this area. My guess is that they are mostly used for plant protection in winter, but I don’t know that for sure. It might just be for market vegetables all year long.

I just can’t help myself, but to take pictures like the last photo. I’ve hauled too much hay to not be amused by this. That is one heck of a load.