Sharjah24 – AFP: 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.
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.
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.
Scientists link such shifting weather patterns and extreme temperatures to the effects of climate change.
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.
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.
In the first nine months of this year the price of plov in Tashkent rose by nearly 30 percent, according to the index, due to steadily rising prices for meat and the explosion in carrot prices.
Uzbekistan is the most populous country in Central Asia, and looks to rivers that rise in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to feed its massive agriculture sector.
In recent years the government has aimed to reduce areas sown for water-thirsty crops like cotton as well as the rice used in plov, while seeking out more water-efficient methods of irrigation.
Neighbouring Kazakhstan's decision to restrict exports of animals and feed after a mass drought-related cattle die-off added to the pressure on prices at Uzbek markets.
If there is a check on rising prices for plov's ingredients, it is the ruthless competition between eateries focused on a single meal.
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