Obstacles to crop diversification and cotton harvest mechanisation: Farm survey evidence from two contrasting districts in Uzbekistan

Hindernisse bei der Einführung diversifizierter Fruchtfolgen und der mechanisierten Baumwollernte: Ergebnisse einer landwirtschaftlichen Betriebsbefragung in zwei unterschiedlichen Landkreisen in Usbekistan

Martin Petrick and Nodir Djanibekov

No 153, IAMO Discussion Papers from Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)

Abstract: The dominance of cotton in the irrigated areas of Central Asia has long been criticized for its ecological effects on salinization and desertification. From an economic point of view, this monoculture ties producers to state procurement, has led to the recurrent mobilization of manual labour during harvest campaigns and makes farmers vulnerable to water availability and crop failure. Crop diversification and harvest mechanisation have been proposed as strategies to mitigate these effects, provide alternative income generation channels and increase farmers´ flexibility in dealing with reduced water availability. This contribution uses 2014 survey data from two districts in Uzbekistan, Jondor in Bukhara province and Zangiota in Tashkent province, to inform this debate by identifying real-world obstacles to these strategies. The first district is dominated by the conventional cotton and wheat rotation introduced after 1991. The second district is home to a wide range of high-value crops (HVC), in particular fruits and vegetables. The evidence shows how HVCs can be a profitable alternative to the state-mandated monocultures. Moreover, water productivity of HVCs is much higher. Even so, there is practically no hands-on experience of harvest mechanisation in the traditional cotton region so far. In addition to the state delivery targets, a lack of finance, absent connections to city markets, missing role models and the complete inexperience of farmers with alternative technologies will impede a further expansion of crop diversification and the mechanisation of harvest operations.

Keywords: cotton; high-value crops; crop diversification; harvest mechanisation; Uzbekistan; Baumwolle; high-value crops; Diversifizierung; Erntemechanisierung; Usbekistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 P28 Q12 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/129107/1/849712866.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Obstacles to crop diversification and cotton harvest mechanisation: Farm survey evidence from two contrasting districts in Uzbekistan (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iamodp:153

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IAMO Discussion Papers from Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().