The Russian import ban on Western food products has stimulated a discussion about whether and how countries in Central Asia and Caucasus might benefit from this political decision by expanding their agrifood exports to Russia. Given this background, our study compares farmers’ willingness to participate in export markets in Armenia and Uzbekistan. Discussions are based on the analysis of surveys of 400 farmers from each country conducted in the spring of 2015. The results show that farmers already participating in local markets have a higher motivation to engage in the production of exportable commodities when a sudden export opportunity emerges. Beyond this general finding, the relative importance of farm and infrastructure characteristics were identified under different commercialization levels. Although both types of factors have been identified as important determinants in the existing literature, our analysis provides further evidence. We demonstrate that variables related to farm characteristics play a rather crucial role in more subsistence-oriented small-scale farming systems as found in the case of Armenia. In contrast, infrastructure may become more important than farm endowments in more commercially oriented farming systems such as observed in Uzbekistan.

Agricultural Polices To Enhance The Development Of Fruit And Vegetable Subsectors In Uzbekistan

Cotton production in Uzbekistan is known as ‘white gold’ and constitutes a strategic centrepiece of the country's rural economy. However, the gradual ongoing process of market-oriented reform has had a severe impact on the cotton sector. The objective of this paper is to estimate the efficiency and total factor productivity growth of cotton farms in Uzbekistan. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied to measure technical efficiency and the Malmquist Index was used to estimate and analyse productivity. The analysis was based on a sample of 26 cotton farms observed between 2007 and 2009. The results help to provide a set of policy recommendations regarding the sector's growth potential through the efficient utilization of resources, and indicate that there has been a moderate decline in productivity attributed to technical degeneration over the period studied.

Adapting to climate change under different agro-ecologies of Central Asian countries still remains a matter of debate. The present study aimed to explore the perceptions and key factors influencing adaptation strategies through the stepwise appraisal framework in upstream zones of the Zerafshan River Basin in Uzbekistan. First, a Severity Index (SI) was calculated to evaluate the perceptions of farmers towards climate change and water scarcity. Then, determinants of adaptation practices were investigated using a binary Logistic regression model with comprehensive farm-level survey data collected from 307 farmers. The highest value of the SI coefficient was attained for the perception “Water resource is getting scarce”, which implies that most farmers already have worries about the potential risk of water shortages although they have been operating with an adequate water supply. Education of household head, extension, and farmer’s perceptions on climate change and water were found to be positive determinants but land size and membership in agro-clusters were found to be negatively influenced factors to climate adaptation strategies. Therefore, we suggest policy implications to consider the land size, cooperation of farmers with clusters, extension, and water management systems to increase the resilience of farmers against climate change at national level.

In the paper, the impact of innovations on the income of rural residents of household activities in the context of the digital economy was analyzed. For this purpose, several methods were applied. Initially, a social survey was conducted in rural areas of the Samarkand region, in which 1,428 households participated. Next, the factor analysis method was applied to create a new index called the “Index of applied innovations” from the variables representing the innovations used in household activities. The normal distribution of variables was checked using the Shapiro (Shapiro-Wilk W-test) test. After this, to analyze the effect of different factors on the income obtained from farm activities, the ANOVA (Analysis of variance) test was used. Finally, to investigate the impact of innovations on the income obtained from household activities, the Tobit model was applied. It was revealed that the increase in the created “Index of applied innovations” by 1 factor increases the income from the activity by 3,664,000 sums. Based on the results of the analysis, scientifically based proposals were developed to increase the income from the activities of homesteads.