Cooperative Relations in Potato Growing on Farms and Their Relationship With Productivity

The role of cooperation relationship between farms that grow potato in Samarkand region and their productivity is studied in this article. Although massive agrarian reforms occurred across Uzbekistan, small farms are nevertheless hampered in achieving efficiency by their restricted access to shared inputs and low levels of institutional trust. This research fills this research gap by assessing the impact of varying levels of cooperation low, medium, and high on performance at the farm level using an empirical approach. A social survey of 168 farms was carried out across three districts Bulungur, Jomboy and Tayloq. Farms were classified in three levels of cooperation by the Latent Class Analysis (LCA) model according to participation in the following seven dimensions of collaboration: seed procurement, land preparation, harvesting, advisory exchange, storage, water management, and fertilizer use. Results show that 35.9% of farms show a high level of cooperation, 45% a medium level, and 19.1% low levels. Farmers with high level of cooperation yielded conspicuously more than the low and medium level groups 35.8 tons per hectare against 27.4 tons. Going by the findings, it shows that working together increases access to inputs, reduces the cost of production, and enhances technology adoption. According to the study, enhancing cooperative networks will turn small farms into competitive, innovative production units. In terms of policies, trust-building mechanisms should be encouraged through underlying policies, shared investment in infrastructure as well as training programs to promote sustainable agricultural modernization in Uzbekistan.