Ak Altin Agricultural Development Project. Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources operates in Uzbekistan.
The Project is designed to address the key sector issues of low producer incentive in cotton production, excessive State control on farm businesses, and deteriorated irrigation and drainage systems. In response to the Government's request to search for better mechanisms to promote agricultural development, the Project will test a set of policy reforms in Ak Altin Raion, with a view to replicating the reform measures nationwide if proven to be successful. The core of the reforms is to replace the current State order system that contols total cotton production with a fixed quantity of "procurement quota", which will not be increased even with substantial yield increases in the future. After fulfilling their individual procurement quotas, farmers will have the freedom to sell their above-quota crops at prices set between buyers and sellers without Government intervention, and the freedom to select input suppliers and cropping patterns. It is expected that, by setting the price right at the margin, farmers will have sufficient incentive to increase production since all incremental outputs will belong to farmers
