Agriculture in a transition economy

The number of private farms in Uzbekistan is constantly increasing and becoming the major type of the production system. All agricultural reforms have been directed to the development of private farms in order to establish a market oriented agricultural sector. The book provides an analysis of the productivity, efficiency and profitability level of private farms at the regional and household level in order to analyse the performance of private farms, specialised in the two “strategic crops,” cotton and wheat. The results indicate on with increasing productivity growth of agriculture represented by private farms in the Tashkent region during the third step of agricultural reforms (2002 – 2005). Cotton and wheat production is still under strict state control. Therefore, cotton and wheat growing private farms are less flexible in their agricultural activities than the private farms cultivating other crops. Cotton and wheat growing private farms were found to be technically efficient, but not economic efficient. This is due to internal and external factors that influence their production activities, which in detail analysed in the book.