Analysing irrigated crop rotation patterns in arid Uzbekistan by the means of remote sensing: A case study on post-Soviet agricultural land use

The classification achieved an overall accuracy of 82%. We found that cotton remains the major crop in the region. It was cultivated for more than five out of the ten years on 46.5% of the cropland. But “Soviet cropping conditions” on less than 20% and officially recommended cotton sequences on more than 50% of the cropland challenge the notion that cotton mono-crop dominates Central Asia. Statistical analysis revealed that long cotton sequences preferably occur on fields far from settlements and under reduced soil suitability for irrigation. The results enable decision makers to better explain unfavourable cotton cultivation practices and to stimulate improvements.