| Popis: |
Since independence, the government of Uzbekistan has implemented the number of agricultural policies such as making some crucial structural reforms at the farms, comprising different institutions and enhancing diversification of agricultural production in order to stabilize the agricultural sector of the country. Therefore, crop diversity has an important role in sustainable agriculture. We calculated the diversification index based on the Simpson Diversity Index method while ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis was employed to assess the association of crop diversification on farm income using cross-sectional data from 381 farmers of Uzbekistan. The study revealed the mean computed Simpson Index values indicate that diversity index was found 0.45, 0.59, 0.56 and 0.62 for Karakalpakstan, Andijan, Kashkadarya and Tashkent regions, respectively. This implies that Tashkent region farmers shifted towards more diversification cropping patterns than other counterparts of the country. The overall result in the four states combined in this study reveals a mean Simpson Index within the sample of farmers was 0.56. This suggests that the farmers in the study areas were not too diversified in their cropping pattern. The study further revealed that crop diversification is positively correlated with farm income. In addition, the variables labor, capital and crop diversification index are positively and significantly influenced by farm income. We therefore conclude that crop diversification enhances availability of foods for the households and income of farmers. While cultivating several crop species also helps the farmers to manage both price and production risks which attains more food options for the household and income through marketing the produce from the surpluses. Therefore, the government needs to intensify the promotion of crop diversification in order to increase farm income and food security in the country. |
