THE ADOPTION OF WATER-SAVING IRRIGATION AMONG RURAL HOUSEHOLDS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23204489Abstract
Water-saving irrigation technologies (WSITs) are central to Uzbekistan’s water-sector reform, yet their adoption among rural households, which cultivate household garden plots (tomorqa) alongside livestock and orchards, remains poorly documented. Using cross-sectional survey data from 1,042 rural households across two regions of Uzbekistan, this study estimates the correlates of water-saving irrigation adoption using binary probit models and average marginal effects (AME), complemented by logit, an exposure-index specification, and alternative outcomes (any-innovation adoption and an innovation count). About one household in four (26.1%) reports using water-saving irrigation. Adoption is associated with both water-climate risk exposure and household capacity: a drought shock raises the probability of adoption by about 14 percentage points (pp), while reported irrigation-water shortage increases it by about 5–6 pp. Having used credit for the plot (+19 pp), cropping intensity (+9 pp per additional crop cycle), and greenhouse ownership (+14 pp) are the strongest correlates. A composite water-climate risk-exposure index is also positively associated with adoption, with an increase of one standard deviation corresponding to a 10 pp increase in the probability of adoption.Keywords
water-saving irrigation, technology adoption, smallholder households, water scarcity, credit constraints, UzbekistanReferences
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