Despite initial concerns of catastrophic outcomes, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown measures did not severely affect regional agriculture in Central Asia and the Caucasus. They did, however, affect food supply chains in terms of demand and logistics. Food prices were volatile...

This study contributes to the understanding of long- and short-term determinants of cooperation among water users. We experimentally investigate the potential of water users' self-governance in enhancing their contributions to a common pool as opposed to external regulation. Our focus is on the...

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian countries have been faced with numerous development challenges in agriculture, especially those related to water use. Well-intentioned foreign donors and development agencies have stepped in to support local farmers, research...

In Central Asia, community water governance insttutons emerged and prevailed for a long tme. By employing an analytcal modelling approach using variants of the evolutonary Hawk-Dove game, we scrutnise three epochs' (pre-Tsarist, Tsarist and Soviet) coordinaton mechanisms and qualitatvely compare...

The spread of information and communications technology (ICT) in Central Asia has reached a point where most farmers use smartphones with mobile internet access, providing an opportunity for a cost-effective and timely access to agricultural information and extension services. When extension...

Promoting zero tillage has been recognized as an important strategy for smallholders from an agronomic perspective. However, the economic effects of adopting zero tillage are still a matter of debate. Employing an endogenous switching regression model on the plot-level panel data of 878...

We theoretically and empirically investigate the investments of water users in a stylized local irrigation system. We model irrigation self-management as an interdependent interaction of users in an evolutionary game and study the resilience of the irrigation system. The theoretical model...