From a greenhouse at the bottom of her garden, Sharifamoh Solihova is cultivating her own solutions to a changing climate. Here in this remote, mountainous slice of Tajikistan, under a tarpaulin structure that serves as her greenhouse, cucumbers, bell peppers, coriander, parsley and green onions flourish in all weathers.
"They taught us how to better prepare the soil before sowing, to add fertilizers, to ensure a balance of minerals and better control irrigation," says the 67-year-old grandmother, of a World Food Programme (WFP)-supported project that offers both technical training and the hothouses to hundreds of mountain growers like herself.
In Central Asia's most exposed country to climate change, the WFP project offers one answer to weather's whims - which are increasingly threatening centuries-old farming traditions. It also offers a vital safety net for villages like Shifobakhsh, where Silohova lives, and where residents depend largely on what they can eke out of the steep and harsh lands that surround them.
Today, village old timers, like 63-year-old Sharif Zainiddinov, say they have never seen such erratic weather. During normal winters, "the surrounding mountains are covered in a thick blanket of snow," he says.
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