Tensions are rising again in Uzbekistans eastern Andijon region, where farmers say they are being coerced into voluntarily surrendering their land to local authorities -- plots of farmland that in some cases are later leased to Chinese investors.

Uzbek officials maintain that all transfers are voluntary, fully legal, and they are not giving farmland to foreign owners, Chinese or otherwise. But farmers involved in growing cotton, vegetables, and fruit from eastern Uzbekistan who spoke to RFE/RL describe threats and late-night visits from local officials meant to pressure them into signing over their land and forfeit their livlihoods.

Under Uzbek law, private agricultural land ownership doesn't exist and a farmer leases state land for up to 49 years. The government can't override that contract unless lease payments go unpaid or if the land is signed over voluntarily.

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Reporting by RFE/RL -- including interviews with farmers, government officials, and a review of legal documents -- shows that local officials in Uzbekistan's Ferghana Valley, an area in the country's east covered in cotton farms that borders Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are relying on intimidation and secrecy to to push farmers off their land so that it can be leased for projects involving Chinese investors.

They came to my house, forced me and my wife into a car, and took us to the district administration office, Zoirjon Gapparov, the head of one of the leading farms in the Qurganteppa district that mostly produces different types of vegetables, told RFE/RL, describing a visit from the local police as part of what he described as a government pressure campaign that began in December 2024.

First [they took me] to the deputy governor for agriculture, Shukhrat Qamchiev, then to the district governor. They said it was a presidential order that our land must be given to the Chinese," he said.

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Gapparov said that he refused pressure to sign an application to surrender the land to the state and that, after the incident, his cotton fields were regularly visited by police and prosecutors. He said that police also tried to intimidate his workers into signing statements that the farmland was illegally leased.

When he visited local officials again in September 2025, he was told that his land had already been reassigned.

"They said I wasnt a farmer anymore, that my land was given to the Chinese, Gapparov recalled. They claimed I had no legal papers, although I have all the documents.

A New System To Transfer Control Of Farmland

RFE/RLs Uzbek Servicereported last year that farmland in several Andijon districts in eastern Uzbekistan was being handed to Chinese companies. After that report in April, transfers temporarily stopped, but farmers say the pressure quietly resumed months later.

China is Uzbekistans largest foreign investor, accounting for the largest share of foreign capital inflows and new projects, but the growing Chinese presence is also fueling anxiety among the country's farmers, especially about prized farmland being prioritized for foreign investors.

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Dilmurod Xojamberdiev, the head of the Qurgonteppa district agriculture department and one of the officials who said that Gapparov's land would be given to Chinese investors, told RFE/RL that the land was leased to Chinese investors, but ownership was not transferred.

"According to the governments decision, a directorate was created in Uzbekistan, and the land was given to that directorate," he said. "Uzbek law doesnt allow farmland to be transferred to foreign citizens."

Asked whether Chinese companies grew crops in the area last year, Xojamberdiev acknowledged they had.

"They rented it from the directorate, not from me or the district governor," he said. "The directorate can lease to whoever it wants. The governor doesnt decide that.

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Under a Cabinet of Ministersdecreeadopted in May 2025, such directorates have been established in Andijon and six other regions -- including Jizzakh, Namangan, Tashkent, Fergana, Sirdaryo, and Qashqadaryo.

Each directorate, consisting of five staff members, is empowered to oversee efficient land use and to sublease farmland to local or foreign investors in accordance with the law.

According to Uzbekistan'sNational Statistics Committee, the country had 17,900 enterprises with foreign participation, including 4,873 with Chinese capital by December 2024. That growth has continued at a rapid pace, with more than 1,500 additional Chinese companies registered by the end of 2025.

'Voluntary Only On Paper'

Other farmers describe similar experiences to Gapparov's.

The head of Azizabonu Durdonasi farm that cultivates cereal crops and cotton, Azizakhon Ergasheva, who agreed to talk to RFE/RL, claims she was taken from her home shortly after midnight by police and pressured to write a statement giving up her 40 hectares of land for cotton farming to the Chinese.

I was sick and exhausted at the time. In the end, I signed it. It was voluntary only on paper, Ergasheva said.

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Xojamberdiev, the head of the Qurgonteppa district agriculture department, said that land is taken only from farmers with debts or those who failed to meet production plans.

He named Ergasheva as one of the indebted farmers, but she said that officials purposefully racked up her debts by setting unrealistic cotton quotas and problems with a drip irrigation project promoted by the district government.

They forced us to sign contracts for 40 centners of cotton per hectare, even though our soil couldnt yield that much, Ergasheva said. A yield of 40 centners of raw cotton per hectare is considered a top-tier harvest in modern cotton farming,accordingto the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

We couldnt meet the target and fell into debt. Then the firm they recommended for drip irrigation took my money and disappeared," she said. "They dug one hole and ran away. And guess what? The district administration recommended them!

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Orifjon Qayumov, the head of the Qurgonteppa District Farmers Council, a public association with strong ties to the Uzbek government, said no foreign investors, including the Chinese, are currently operating on the seized plots.

Land is taken only voluntarily or by court decision, he said. Farmers transfer it to the reserve by their own request. The regional governor established an agricultural directorate, which now holds the land legally. Well see what happens in the spring.

Farmers dispute that version, saying no court summons were issued and that signatures were extracted under pressure, including threats of arrest and surprise home visits from police.

Two farmers who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals told RFE/RL they were taken from their homes to the local police station, where they were pressured to sign voluntary transfer statements under the supervision of district governor Alisher Xalilov.

More than 20 farmers in Ergasheva's district, and nearly 50 across Andijon region, also claim to have lost money to the same irrigation contractor that was recommended to her by the government.

Ergasheva said her 40 hectares, officially taken for Chinese investment, were actually handed to a wealthy local businessman, Bahodir Saidaliev.

He came and leveled everything Id built: the orchard, even the mulberry trees I raised silkworms on," she said. "He said hed plant high-efficiency sweet cherries. Instead, they planted wild ones that dried out. Now the land is barren and covered in weeds."