Participation in Informal Cooperation in Water Management and Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Empirical Evidence From Uzbekistan

Central Asian agriculture faces significant challenges, including low adoption rates of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs). One contributing factor is the inefficiency of agricultural extension systems, which struggle to meet farmers' informational needs due to outdated content and ineffective communication. In this context, informal cooperation among farmers plays a crucial role in sharing agricultural knowledge. Focussing on Uzbekistan's irrigated areas, our study investigates the impact of farmers' participation in informal water management cooperation on the intensity of SAP adoption. Using pooled two‐year survey data of 858 farmers, we employ the Marginal Treatment Effects model to account for potential selection bias and heterogeneity across farmers. The results indicate that participation in informal cooperation positively influences SAP adoption intensity, particularly among farmers with larger land holdings and better soil quality. Moreover, farmers already inclined to participate in informal cooperation benefit the most in terms of increased intensity of SAP adoption. Our findings suggest that promoting community‐managed irrigation can be an effective strategy to enhance SAP adoption in Uzbekistan. However, the effects of informal cooperation are not uniform across all farmers, necessitating differentiated support mechanisms that address the specific needs, challenges and unobservable characteristics of various farmer groups.