Crop farming and livestock farming

Crop farming consists of field crops, horticulture and viticulture; crops are grouped as grain, industrial crops, fodder, vegetables, potatoes and melons. In Uzbekistan farming is mostly irrigated: irrigated land makes up less than a tenth of the country’s land, yet almost all farm output is grown on it. The most important industrial crop is cotton: the cotton complex is tied to ginning, textiles, the oil industry, machine building and livestock. If cotton is rotated with alfalfa, maize and rice, the soil improves, salt decreases and there is less disease, while alfalfa and maize give fodder. After independence the area under grain crops (wheat, barley, rice, maize) rose sharply and the country aimed at self-sufficiency in grain; irrigated winter wheat gives higher yields than rain-fed wheat. Rice, which needs much water, is grown mainly on the lower Amu Darya (Khorezm, Karakalpakstan) and also in Tashkent region and the Zarafshan and Fergana valleys. Vegetables, potatoes and melons are plentiful around big cities; melons are famous in Khorezm, Bukhara, Jizzakh, Syrdarya and Karakalpakstan. Fruit growing and viticulture are specialized in every region: pomegranates of Quva and Dashnobod, Andijan grapes, Samarkand raisins, grapes and cucumbers of Altiaryk, apricots and peaches on the Fergana foothills. Fruit and vegetables ripen 60–70 days earlier than in lands to the north, which allows export.