Extreme weather costly for Uzbek plov dish

The sweet-flavoured, yellow carrots grown by Uzbek farmer Mukhtor Gazatov are a key ingredient in his country's national pilaf dish -- but extreme weather has devastated this year's harvest.

Cooked with meat, onions, rice and plenty of oil, the carrots are a must-have to make Uzbekistan's beloved plov, a staple in the Central Asian country of 35 million people.

"They are sweeter than the orange kind and lend a special flavour," the 60-year-old told AFP at his farm outside the isolated republic's capital.

But one of the worst droughts in years has hit the ex-Soviet region.

Gazatov's crops were ruined while shoppers grumble over carrots that are four times more expensive than before, pushing up prices of a plate of plov.

"When the weather is that hot, some carrots simply burn out. The carrots that survive are smaller," said Gazatov, whose annual income fell by a third.

City temperatures surged past 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in early June -- a month when readings are typically in the mid-30s or lower.

Unseasonably cold weather earlier in the spring had already delayed the harvest and compromised its quality, causing carrots to crack, Gazatov lamented.

Scientists link such shifting weather patterns and extreme temperatures to the effects of climate change. 

Whole lotta plov

In the capital Tashkent, it is not hard to see where the demand for Gazatov's crop is.

Restaurants with plov-heavy menus are dotted throughout the city, whose region is one of several that claim to make the best version of the dish.

Plov is served at weddings where ingredients are cooked in massive cast iron pots.

Thursdays are earmarked for plov-making followed by love-making in married households -- according to legend, at least.

Plov's prominent role in public life motivated the government's decision last year to create a "plov index", echoing the Big Mac index used as a measure for the cost of living in other countries.