Is land nationalization more conducive to sustainable development of cultivated land and food security than land privatization in post-socialist Central Asia?

Abstract The impact of policies on cultivated land and food security has received global attention, especially in Central Asia, which underwent drastic transformations in land policies during the post-socialist era. Therefore, this study focused on the impacts of policies on the quantity and quality of cultivated land and food security in Central Asia from 1992 to 2015. The results showed that although different land policy reforms were implemented by five Central Asian countries, the cultivated land areas tended to be stable after 2010. The cultivated land increased by approximately 7.02 × 104 km2 in Central Asia. After 2000, cultivated land slowly increased and the degree of land degradation rapidly decreased, illustrating that the turning point for the quantity and quality of cultivated land change caused by these policies occurred in 2000. In addition, changes in cotton and grain cultivation occurred in response to the policies of Central Asian countries. Grain per capita increased in land nationalization countries, whereas it decreased in land privatization countries. Thus, driven by policies, the cultivated land use mode in Central Asia was gradually replacing the mode used by the Soviet Union and has been moving toward sustainable development. Some Central Asian countries, however, still face food insecurity.