114
Major water engineering projects (MWEPs) have been held up as signifi cant
symbols of modernisation. Technological approaches address the power and potential of ecological and societal transformation. Most of the major projects are located
in areas with antecedents. Some of these have been irrigation hubs since ancient
times. The Fergana Valley is no exception to this widespread phenomenon (Fourniau
2000 ; Francfort and Lecomte 2002 ; Cariou 2004 ). Known for its fertility in the
midst of an arid environment, the utilisation of the Syrdarya waters formed the basis
of a success story of the upscaling, expansion and extension of irrigation which, in
turn, lead to the drying-up and shrinking of Aral Sea with all its consequences. The
nineteenth-century Russian administrator and scholar Aleksandr Fedorovich
Middendorf said that
[…] over thousands of years the populace had constructed huge water channels, carried out
large-scale fertilization and planted whole forests of shade-giving trees for fruits and wood,
with ‘each individual tree being in need of life-giving water’. The Kokandis planted fi elds
of wheat, barley, millet sorghum, corn, rice beans, sesame, fl ax, hemp, cotton, and alfalfa
while their gardens included melons, water melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, grapes, apricots,
peaches, apples, pears, quinces, nuts, plums, cherries, not to mention onions, carrots, beets
and other produce. The main grain crop was wheat, which Kirghiz cattle ranchers raised on
the lower slopes of the Alai range as a kind of side business. […] The expansion of irrigation after the early eighteenth century increased the number of villages and reduced the area
available for grazing. Cotton growing always had held a special place throughout the
Kokand Khanate, but in the nineteenth century farmers also began cultivating American
long-fi bred hybrids. (Middendorf 1882 , pp. 11–12)
1
This stated diversity of cultivars hints at the enormous fertility attributed to the
Fergana Valley, the tradition of cotton cultivation prior to Russian colonisation and
an early inclination to produce market-oriented cash crops. In the contemporary
context, only cotton and wheat are discussed as the leading cash and subsistence
crops of independent Uzbekistan. Cotton has been identifi ed as the most controversial crop, the importance of which Max Spoor ( 2007 ) questioned as either a “curse”
or “foundation for development”.
Through several transformations, the Fergana Valley has come a long way from
the fertile hub of the Kokand Khanate (Fig. 9.1 ) to a tripartite bone of contention
shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Looking at the path-dependent
development of the growing irrigation systems in the Fergana Valley, the impact of
modernisation as the guiding principle for transforming economy and society
demands further analysis. The nexus of colonial/imperial domination and the experiment of modernising and expanding the water sector need to be explored to shed
some light on the effects of upscaling an irrigation network and the challenges of
rescaling in recent times. Imperial attitudes and boundary making during the latter
half of the nineteenth century shifted borders as the result of the Great Game and
have changed scale over time (Kreutzmann 2013a ). The reconfi guration of territoriality poses an interesting challenge in understanding the impact on a “fi xed infrastructure” such as the MEWP in the Fergana Valley. Borders have been shifted over
time; the extent of controlled catchment areas, the size of the water management
1 Middendorf ( 1882 , pp. 11–12); quoted according to the translation of Dubovitskii and Bababekov
( 2011 , p. 58). See as well Joffe ( 1995 , p. 369).
H. Kreutzmann
Major water engineering projects (MWEPs) have been held up as signifi cant
symbols of modernisation. Technological approaches address the power and potential of ecological and societal transformation. Most of the major projects are located
in areas with antecedents. Some of these have been irrigation hubs since ancient
times. The Fergana Valley is no exception to this widespread phenomenon (Fourniau
2000 ; Francfort and Lecomte 2002 ; Cariou 2004 ). Known for its fertility in the
midst of an arid environment, the utilisation of the Syrdarya waters formed the basis
of a success story of the upscaling, expansion and extension of irrigation which, in
turn, lead to the drying-up and shrinking of Aral Sea with all its consequences. The
nineteenth-century Russian administrator and scholar Aleksandr Fedorovich
Middendorf said that
[…] over thousands of years the populace had constructed huge water channels, carried out
large-scale fertilization and planted whole forests of shade-giving trees for fruits and wood,
with ‘each individual tree being in need of life-giving water’. The Kokandis planted fi elds
of wheat, barley, millet sorghum, corn, rice beans, sesame, fl ax, hemp, cotton, and alfalfa
while their gardens included melons, water melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, grapes, apricots,
peaches, apples, pears, quinces, nuts, plums, cherries, not to mention onions, carrots, beets
and other produce. The main grain crop was wheat, which Kirghiz cattle ranchers raised on
the lower slopes of the Alai range as a kind of side business. […] The expansion of irrigation after the early eighteenth century increased the number of villages and reduced the area
available for grazing. Cotton growing always had held a special place throughout the
Kokand Khanate, but in the nineteenth century farmers also began cultivating American
long-fi bred hybrids. (Middendorf 1882 , pp. 11–12)
1
This stated diversity of cultivars hints at the enormous fertility attributed to the
Fergana Valley, the tradition of cotton cultivation prior to Russian colonisation and
an early inclination to produce market-oriented cash crops. In the contemporary
context, only cotton and wheat are discussed as the leading cash and subsistence
crops of independent Uzbekistan. Cotton has been identifi ed as the most controversial crop, the importance of which Max Spoor ( 2007 ) questioned as either a “curse”
or “foundation for development”.
Through several transformations, the Fergana Valley has come a long way from
the fertile hub of the Kokand Khanate (Fig. 9.1 ) to a tripartite bone of contention
shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Looking at the path-dependent
development of the growing irrigation systems in the Fergana Valley, the impact of
modernisation as the guiding principle for transforming economy and society
demands further analysis. The nexus of colonial/imperial domination and the experiment of modernising and expanding the water sector need to be explored to shed
some light on the effects of upscaling an irrigation network and the challenges of
rescaling in recent times. Imperial attitudes and boundary making during the latter
half of the nineteenth century shifted borders as the result of the Great Game and
have changed scale over time (Kreutzmann 2013a ). The reconfi guration of territoriality poses an interesting challenge in understanding the impact on a “fi xed infrastructure” such as the MEWP in the Fergana Valley. Borders have been shifted over
time; the extent of controlled catchment areas, the size of the water management
1 Middendorf ( 1882 , pp. 11–12); quoted according to the translation of Dubovitskii and Bababekov
( 2011 , p. 58). See as well Joffe ( 1995 , p. 369).
H. Kreutzmann