Red tomatoes along the Silk Road

Abstract

Historically, Central Asia and agriculture have had a tempestuous relationship. The collapse of the USSR in 1999 put agriculture fully in crisis. Greenhouses, a flourishing sector in the latter days of the USSR, almost fully disappeared. In attempt to gain self-sufficiency in fruit and vegetable production, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan reconsider greenhouses to stabilize horticulture in the region’s desertifying climate. Current water governance, formed by USSR political and technological path dependencies, has not been able to bolster this transnational infrastructure transition, in which water and energy systems are interrelated and shared across borders. That bears the question: how does path dependency influence infrastructure transitions in centralist and authoritarian regimes? A multiple-case study design gathered data about water governance in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan through a literature review and semi-structured interviews. Planned transitions in those regimes did not evolve as intended due to pushback from actors and USSR induced institutions, not being ready for change. An institutional structure to support transitions in those regimes is lacking due to institutional reproduction of USSR conception, reflecting little pluralism of actors, restricted actor interaction, and top-down governance. High sunk costs make it expensive and physically challenging to change or abandon existing (water) infrastructure, particularly without clear ownership and roles. Accordingly, the USSR conception of governance and past technological decisions lead to path dependencies and impede change in this transnational infrastructure.