Farmer D was interviewed by project researchers on 25 May 2022.179 The farmer says that his 46-hectare farm for the production of grain and cotton was leased to him in 2009 by the Akaltin district hokimiyat for 49 years. He states that he has consistently fulfilled government-set production quotas, as stipulated in his land lease. Farmer D’s land was transferred to the district land reserve in accordance with decision no. 1483 of the Akaltin district hokim, dated 29 November 2018. He was not notified of the decision, nor was he asked for his consent to transfer his land lease and only learned of the hokim’s decision a few months after the decision was issued. At that time, the farmer had already planted wheat for the 2019 harvest but the land was nevertheless transferred to Indorama Agro by the hokimiyat. The farmer received no compensation for the loss of his land or his wheat harvest. He also attests that a copy of the hokim’s decision was not given to him for a significant time, which delayed his ability to appeal against the land lease termination in court. Farmer D filed an appeal with the Akaltin district court to overturn the district hokim’s decision no. 1483 of 29 November 2018. According to his testimony, he filed his first complaint to the court in January 2020. However, the case was not considered as he had exceeded the time limit of three months for filing an appeal. The farmer took the case to court twice more, but the Syrdarya regional Administrative Court upheld previous rulings. In 2022, he filed his case with the Supreme Court, and the case was ongoing at the time of the interview. Farmer D also says he has appealed to several government agencies, including the Ombudsman, but that none of them have helped his case. He says that, based on his experience of two district courts and one regional court, he does not believe that the court system in Uzbekistan is fair or transparent. The testimonies of farmers collected by project researchers support details provided by other farmers in Syrdarya region to independent media. An article published by Ozodlik, the Uzbek language edition of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/ RL), on 4 January 2021 cited the testimony of Adolat Abdurazzokova.180 The article states that Abdurazzokova had worked on an 80-hectare farm in Akaltin and Sardoba districts, growing cotton and wheat since 2003. However, in December 2018, she learned that her land, for which she had a 49year lease, had been given to a “foreign investor” by local authorities. The article alleges that the hokim’s office issued a fake letter stating that Abdurazzokova had voluntarily given her land to Indorama Agro. The article also states that most farmers in Syrdarya, under the weight of the district hokim, the police and the prosecutor, had been forced to submit a mandatory application for the “voluntary” surrender of their land. According to the article, after losing her land, Abdurazzokova was hired as a brigadier to work on the farm she had once run, for a salary of two million soums (approximately US$160) per month. Abdurazzokova reported that her salary was not paid to her for three months and she was soon after demoted to a seasonal worker and not paid again. Image 15: Farmers whose land was transferred to Indorama Agro, Akaltin district, 2021 Source: Ozodlik 56 A False Sense of Legality