The pistachio harvest campaign started in the very south of Turkmenistan – at the foothills of the Paropamiz Mountains in the Badkhyz State Reserve. Pistachio containing up to 60% of oil and up to 20 % of protein is a valuable product for food industry. It is used for producing vegetable oil and in confectionary industry. Even in ancient times the people knew about the high nutritive value and tonic properties of pistachio. In the East pistachio is called ‘the tree of life’.

The pistachio plantations in Badkhyz – the largest in the Central Asian region occupy 13,000 hectares. The fruit-bearing tract where the majority of the trees are 700 years old is unique. Due to the strong rootage pistachio needs no watering. The trees grow at a considerable distance from one another, and even in the sultry weather herbage grows nearby pistachio trees.

Being extremely drought-resistant pistachio trees resist the cold temperature below 25 degrees. Valuable pistachio pitch is used in paint and varnish industry for manufacturing high-quality natural dyestuffs used in carpet weaving. Outgrowths along the edges of the leaves contain tanning agents used in leather, textile and pharmaceutical industries. Solid and hard pistachio wood is good for timberwork. Cake is used as the fodder for livestock and poultry.

The Badhyz State Reserve was established in 1941 to preserve the largest pistachio plantations in the region and to protect and study the population of onagri. Nowadays, it is one of the largest open-air research centres in the country.