During a long historical period, beginning with the advent of man adapts to different natural and geographical conditions. Since ancient times, people live in the Arctic Arctic, hot tropical mountainous areas, tundra and taiga forests, spacious steppes and deserts of Asia, Africa and Australia. They manage to live in adverse weather conditions, under the threat of wild animals. During the pre-civilization period, people found their food prepared in nature in various ways and ways. For example, in the Asian continent, wild wheat has long been distributed, and in Central America — rice. In America, there were various kinds of edible roots and fruit trees, which provided a person with the necessary food in ready-made form.
The fact that the emergence of all the peoples of the world and their occupations, crafts originates from the period of Adam and Eve, is reflected in historical books, sacred texts, and folk art. The existence of particular types of traditional occupations of the peoples of Central Asia is connected not only with ancient similar crafts, but also associated with certain regigies and their beliefs.
Agriculture makes sense to «process». Thanks to the cultivation of the earth, the care of plants, and nature, man, as a child of nature, worthily continues the creative activity of nature.
Thanks to human labor and abilities, hundreds of plant species in nature have been artificially turned into crops. As a result, from ancient times, crops such as rice, wheat, corn, and millet are distributed in Asia, Europe, America, Australia. If we imagine how certain crops came about, then it can be understood in what difficult conditions they arose and spread on the earth [1]. For example, rice within 8 thousand years reached Europe through the Indian and Pacific Ocean, through Italy and the Pyrenees.
The ancient ancestors of the Uzbek people also from primitive times, adapting to natural conditions, created special economic and cultural types. This situation influenced the formation of local ethnic groups. On the basis of land and water resources, natural wealth, a way of life, mentality, and national feelings of the people are formed. The directions of economic and cultural types are determined not only by the natural environment, but also by the socio-cultural degree of development of various ethnic groups.
The many-sided farming of the Uzbeks is based on centuries of experience. Depending on the natural conditions, the modern territory of Uzbekistan is subdivided into 3 agricultural zones: mountainous and foothill (20.5 %), irrigated land zones (18.2 %), and steppe zones [2]. But not all irrigated land zones are irrigated. Fergana Valley, Kashkadarinskaya, Surkhandarya, Zarafshan and Khorezm agricultural oases, which are located among mountain systems and deserts along the rivers, are known since ancient times.
According to archaeological data, the transition of the ancient nomadic tribes on the territory of Uzbekistan to agricultural farming is considered a revolution that took place in the Neolithic era.
Based on the use of animal power and plow, agriculture in Uzbekistan began to spread widely in the 3–2 millennia BC.. At that time, the coastal area of Zarafshan, the oasis of Khorezm, was mastered. At the end of the 2 millennium BC and 1 millennium BC the development of the Fergana Valley begins. For centuries, methods of improving, restoring yields and agricultural techniques are being introduced in agriculture, methods of fertilizing the land, irrigating and eliminating saline soil are emerging. In the 1st millennium BC large main canals were built, waterworks in Khorezm were restored.
From the early periods of farming, grain and melon crops were grown in Uzbekistan. Farmers in Central Asia domesticated some varieties of wheat, barley, millet, apricot, apples, pears at the end of the era of the Eneolithic.
Economic types of irrigated agriculture were formed mainly in the oases of Khorezm, Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, and the basins of the Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya rivers. Depending on the sowing, irrigated lands are divided into field zones and open zones, horticultural and melon areas. During the period of the existence of the Khanates in Uzbekistan, agricultural products were mainly produced. Products such as wheat, barley, millet, corn, melons and gourds were considered the leading crops.
As a result of the conquest of Turkestan by Tsarist Russia, serious changes are observed in the field of agriculture. Areas of growing agricultural food were reduced. They began to pay attention to industrial crops, mainly cotton.
In 1916, in the Turkestan Territory, all the sown areas of the Syrdarya, Fergana and Samarkand regions were 2.5 million acres [3], of which 2/3 of the units were irrigated, the rest were rainfed.
A national-territorial delimitation was carried out, after the formation of the Uzbek SSR, the cotton fields expanded even more [4]. Dekhkan and peasant farms were eliminated, which, in turn, were merged into community farms (collective farms). And on collective farms, cotton remained the main and only type of sowing. True, in some territories of Uzbekistan state farms (state farms) were organized, where other crops were grown — corn, rice, clover, but their efficiency was very low.
After gaining independence of Uzbekistan, agrarian reforms were carried out. Because 62 % of the population lived in rural areas. During the years of reforms, 550 thousand hectares of irrigated land were given to citizens for personal use. The transformation in agriculture intensified, they began to move into acceptable forms of management. During the years of agrarian reform, the collective and state farms were transformed into social enterprises. But since the farms did not justify themselves, they were turned into shirkatnye farms on the basis of share ownership. In 1999, 898 agricultural farms were turned into shirkats, and in 2000, 856 farms. However, shirkats did not justify themselves.
The presidential decree of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated 2003 March 24 “On the most important areas of deepening agrarian reforms” identified new areas of reform in agriculture [5].
In 2007–2008, the area under crops of farms specializing in the cultivation of cotton and vegetables expanded about 2.5 times, and the production of food increased. Dekhkan and farms in Uzbekistan have become the main actors in the production of products. As a result of agrarian reforms in the years of independence, the life of agriculture was renewed, the attitude of dehkans and farmers to work, their outlook changed. They became the true owners of their lands, the products that they produced by their labor.
In conclusion, it is important to note that agrarian reforms and transformation processes in agriculture have a direct connection with the life of the country and the population, they are considered the main factor in ensuring the standard of living and well-being.
References:
- И.Жабборов»Ўзбек халқ этнографияси».Т.:”Фан”.1994.
- Т. Хўжаев. “Аждодлар қиёфаси”.Т.: “Мерос”.1998.
- М.Рустамов. “Ўзбекистон этногфияси”.Т.:1991.II том.
- С. Курбонов. Давлат хўжаликларида меҳнат.Т.: “Меҳнат”.1979
- I. A. Karimov. Bizning maqsadimiz-erkin va faravon, demokratik hayot qurish.T.:”O’zbekiston”.2015
