(Жақсы) жер кімнің меншігінде? Орталық Азияның оңтүстігіндегі мақта шаруашылығы, жер иелігі және сортаңданған топырақтар

Abstract

Land degradation is increasingly threatening agricultural systems and rural livelihoods on a vast scale across Central Asia, where cotton farmers represent the backbone of irrigation-based agriculture and face the brunt of the threat. Questions of agricultural production and preservation are complicated by evolving policies and land-ownership patterns. Farmers juggle concern for their short-term gains and the long-term preservation of their soils and many, as in the quote above, struggle to find a balance. This chapter explores these problems through the view from Maktaaral District, Kazakhstan’s southernmost and most important cotton-producing region. It addresses how agricultural actors emerging from the post-Soviet ownership regime are coping with the challenge of land degradation. Previous studies of post-socialist transformations of rural communities in irrigated areas of Central Asia have emphasised the changing gender, property and power relations in agricultural production (Kandiyoti 2003; Trevisani 2011; Zanca 2011; Hofman 2019). They documented the lingering claims and resentments of those penalised by the outcome of a decollectivisation that has advantaged the rich and powerful, opening up a gap between winners and losers during the process of reform (Hann et al. 2003; Trevisani 2011). However, the environmental dimension of the transition to post-socialist agriculture has remained underexplored. The case of Maktaaral contributes to current debates on changing land ownership and decreasing options for small farmers to make a living from agriculture in Central Asia by emphasising the increasing role of land degradation and conservation for social differentiation. It shows how well-intentioned policies addressing agricultural sustainability emergencies have aggravated socio-economic and environmental disparities among ‘small’ producers and large farms, effectively decoupling concerns over environmental sustainability and justice (Agyeman et al. 2003). Recent debates on environmental justice in Central Asia have deployed the concept of ‘econationalism’ (Dubuisson 2020), also emphasising local forms of resistance against external (i.e., state or foreign) actors (Weinthal and Watters 2010; Wooden 2018). Unlike these examples, in post-socialist cotton agriculture it is not easy to point to the ‘villain’ in local reasonings on land conservation. As agricultural actors’ understandings of environmental responsibility and just sustainability (Mohai et al., 2009) shift along with their changing patterns of livelihood and land ownership, post-collective Maktaaral makes an interesting case for addressing local reasonings on environmental futures.