Talk:Fergana Valley

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Discussion for: Fergana Valley • View • Links • Related changes

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Page scope

Fergana Valley treats the Fergana Valley as one cannabis growing region across Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It covers the wild stands, the sown plots and the eradication operations reported there, and the region's growing areas, Osh and Sughd. Each country's drug law is treated on its country page.

Data verification

Record source conflicts, dating problems and sources not used here. Keep narrative content on the article.

Discussion

Why the Fergana Valley is a growing region

• No source read so far describes the valley as a single cannabis landscape in its own words. The region rests on the places inside it that the sources name.
• Kyrgyz side: the UNODC surveys of 1998–1999 found wild growth and cultivation in Osh oblast (Illicit drug trends in Central Asia, 2008, p. 23); Akmatova (2024) names Uzgen and Kara-Suu districts for the gathering of anasha raw material in the 1980s; border guards found cannabis crops near Andarkhan in 2020, and a sown plot was reported at Kyzyl-Kiya in 2026.
• Tajik side: the same UNODC surveys put 95 per cent of the Tajik total in Leninabad (now Sughd); sown plants were found in Zafarobod district in 2008 and Jabbor Rasulov district in 2015.
• Uzbek side: sown plants on household plots and farm land in Tashlak (2025), Chartak and Kurgantepa (2026) and Oltinko'l (2026) districts. Each was reported once; none of these districts has a page of its own.
• The Kyrgyz drug commission's proposal to the United Nations, as Zelichenko (2003) gives it, names the Fergana valley among the places with thickets of wild hemp. It does not name districts.

Growing status

The status is Active. The sources record cannabis grown in the region in 2008, 2015, 2020, 2025 and 2026. No source says that growing has ended.

Extent and border

• The border is a proxy drawn on whole administrative units, as mapped in OpenStreetMap: Osh Region, Osh City and Batken Region (Kyrgyzstan); Andijan, Namangan and Fergana regions (Uzbekistan); and the districts of Zafarobod, Spitamen, Jabbor Rasulov, Mastchoh, Bobojon Ghafurov, Konibodom, Asht and Isfara with the towns of Khujand, Buston and Guliston (Sughd Region, Tajikistan). It covers about 74,000 km², the figure in the infobox.
• It is wider than the valley floor. Osh and Batken regions run south over the Alay and Turkestan ranges, and Osh Region takes in the Alay valley beyond them. The Tajik districts west of Khujand lie beyond the valley's narrow western end.
• Jalal-Abad Region is not drawn in. It lies on the northern and north-eastern side of the valley and forms the Jalal-Abad growing area in the Tian Shan growing region.
• The southern districts of Sughd Region (Istaravshan, Shahriston, Devashtich, Ayni, Kuhistoni Mastchoh, Panjakent) are not drawn in.
• The infobox point (40.27, 71.84) is the centre of the drawn region. The border is not drawn from accession or news points.

Accessions

• Verner s.n., Kokand (1910) lies inside the region and is not attached to it. Its label records the plant as very common everywhere near the town and says nothing of cultivation.
• The Uljanova sheets of 1969 (Isfara district and Chorkuh), the Academy of Sciences sheet of 2022 (Akbarobod, Fergana Region) and the 2025 sheet from Bulaqbashi district (Andijan Region) are not accessions on the wiki.

Sources

• Kushelevsky (1891): V. I. Kushelevsky's Материалы для медицинской географии и санитарного описания Ферганской области (vol. II, Novyi Margelan, 1891) describes how nasha was made in Fergana oblast from hemp cut in early September, and says that the plants from which the local narcotics are obtained grow in abundance in Fergana. It was read only in a transcription on a history blog; it is not cited until the printed text can be checked.
• Fedchenko (1875): describes the smoking of nasha, not where the hemp was grown.
• Akmatova (2024): places Toktogul district in Talas oblast; it is in Jalal-Abad Region today. Her figures come from the archive of the Osh oblast police.
• Ismailov (2007): a newspaper article in Slovo Kyrgyzstana titled for the "Batken corridor" and cannabis grown among sunflowers, cited by Botoeva (2016). It could not be found and is not used.
• Turmush (24 September 2026): the Kyzyl-Kiya report is read from the article's summary line; the full text is behind a paywall.
• 24.kg (11 September 2020): the Russian original calls the Andarkhan find посевы (crops or sowings) and the Jalal-Abad finds трава (grass). It does not say whether the Andarkhan plants were sown.