The land question is not only about the cadastre, ownership, or lease relations. It is a strategic area connected with food security, the business environment, housing policy, investment attractiveness, water resources, and environmental sustainability. In recent years, Uzbekistan has been carrying out important reforms in openness in land allocation, electronic auctions, protection of ownership and lease rights, and efficient use of agricultural land. The main task now is to consolidate these changes into a single, comprehensible, and modern logic of the Land Code.
The current Land Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan defines land as a nationwide asset. It states that, since land is the foundation of the people's life, activity, and well-being, its rational use and its protection by the state are necessary. Among the tasks of land legislation, the code also sets out the restoration and improvement of soil fertility, the preservation of the natural environment, and the protection of rights to land plots. Consequently, three criteria in the treatment of land — economic efficiency, legal guarantee, and environmental responsibility — must not be separated from one another.
The reforms of recent years have been aimed precisely at ensuring this balance. Presidential Decree No. PF-6243 of June 8, 2021, established new procedures for ensuring equality and transparency in land relations, reliably protecting rights to land, and turning them into a market asset. This decree marked an important turning point in reducing administrative discretion in land allocation and in strengthening open competition and legal guarantees.
One of the most important changes in practice is the expansion of electronic auction mechanisms in the allocation of land plots. Under the current procedure, land designated for agriculture is allocated solely on the basis of lease rights, following the results of an electronic online auction in which all types of agricultural commodity producers may participate. Land not designated for agriculture is disposed of through an electronic online auction on the basis of both ownership rights and lease rights.
The political and legal significance of these reforms lies in the fact that, in land matters, priority must be given not to "someone's decision" but to the law, open data, the electronic system, and equal competition. Transparency in land allocation is not merely an economic reform; it is also an essential condition of a just state, of the guarantee of property rights, and of the reduction of corruption-related factors.
A particularly important institutional change was the abolition of certain powers of local bodies of state authority in the field of land relations, including the right to take decisions on establishing, recognizing, and altering rights to land plots. At the same time, procedures have been established for taking decisions on land relations through the "E-qaror" system and for compiling geographic data and maps through the cadastral information system.
The law on the privatization of land plots not designated for agriculture has also been one of the important steps in this direction. It stipulates that the privatization of land plots is carried out on the basis of such principles as legality, voluntariness, and payment. For entrepreneurs and investors this means legal certainty, and for citizens it means a guarantee of property.
However, alongside the positive changes in this field, there is also a serious issue that needs to be resolved: the norms relating to land relations are scattered across various laws, decrees, resolutions, and departmental procedures. The current Land Code was adopted in 1998. The reforms of subsequent years have been implemented by amending certain of its articles or by adopting separate regulatory legal acts. This does not mean that the legal framework is not working. On the contrary, the reforms exist. But the need to consolidate them into a single, comprehensible, and systematic code is growing.
This need is also clearly visible in the life of an ordinary citizen, farmer, or entrepreneur. For example, in order to obtain a land plot, privatize it, register it in the cadastre, or construct a facility on it, an entrepreneur is obliged to deal with several regulatory documents, electronic systems, and interagency procedures. A farmer, in turn, faces various requirements concerning land lease, sublease, agrotechnical obligations, water supply, and soil fertility. The more scattered the rules, the lower the legal certainty and the greater the risk of excessive bureaucracy and disputes.
From this standpoint, the answer to the question "why is a new Land Code needed precisely now?" is clear: land relations are shifting toward market mechanisms, the institution of sublease is taking shape on agricultural land, the process of returning land occupied without authorization to the legal domain is under way, and the risks of water scarcity and soil degradation are intensifying. Consequently, systematizing all these processes within a single code is becoming a task that cannot be postponed.
The question of agricultural land is even more sensitive, because such land is not only an economic resource but also a vital source connected with food security, rural employment, and export potential. Law No. OʻRQ-1120 of March 6, 2026, established that a tenant of a land plot designated for agriculture may, subject to compliance with certain requirements, transfer to another person the rights and obligations relating to one or several of two or more land plots leased to that tenant — that is, may sublease them.
This mechanism may broaden the opportunities for efficient land use. It is an economically sound approach for a tenant who has obtained land but cannot use it fully to transfer it to an entity capable of working it. But if this process is not supported by an open register, cadastral data, contractual obligations, and continuous oversight, there is a possibility that a hidden "land market" or informal lease relations will emerge.
Another complex area is land plots occupied without authorization. The law adopted in 2024 aims to regulate relations connected with the recognition of rights to such land plots and to the buildings and structures erected on them. The law provides for an automated information system, publication of data for the public, state and public oversight, dispute resolution, and questions of liability.
The scale of this process is also considerable. A resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of May 27, 2025, notes that, as of April 30, 2025, more than 247,000 real estate items had been inventoried in 1,234 mahalla citizens' assemblies (mahalla — a traditional local community), about 99,000 items had been entered into the "Eʼtirof" automated information system, and rights had been recognized in respect of more than 200 items. These figures show that the formalization of land and property rights is a matter of broad social importance.
Here, however, balance is essential. The recognition of rights is necessary from the standpoint of the interests of people who have lived for years without documents. But this process must not, in the future, reinforce the mistaken attitude that "you can first occupy the land and legalize it later." For this reason, legalization must be carried out with strict criteria, open deadlines, grounds for refusal, and public oversight.
Land reform cannot be confined to ownership, lease, or the cadastre alone. It is also directly connected with water, soil, land reclamation, and climate change. Within the priority areas set through 2030, targets have been established to reduce salinized areas within irrigated land to 1.7 million hectares and to bring to 100% the level of coverage of irrigated agricultural cropland by water-saving technologies, including laser land leveling.
Consequently, at this new stage the Land Code must answer not only the question "to whom is land allocated?" but also the questions "how is land preserved?", "what returns are obtained from it?", "how is soil fertility maintained?", and "how are water-saving requirements met?" Land is a limited resource. Alongside using it for today's needs, preserving it in the interests of future generations is both a matter of state policy and a responsibility of society.
Practical proposals
First, it is advisable to adopt the Land Code in a new version. In the new version, the norms on land allocation, electronic auctions, leasing of agricultural land, privatization of land not designated for agriculture, sublease, recognition of rights to land occupied without authorization, the cadastre, changing the category of land, and land protection should be brought into a single system.
Second, the principle of "one land plot — one legal status — one digital passport" should be introduced. For each land plot, the ownership or lease right, land category, restrictions, easements, auction history, cadastral data, water supply, land reclamation condition, and environmental restrictions must be reflected in a single digital passport.
Third, the system of performance-based contracts in the leasing of agricultural land should be strengthened. A tenant should be assessed not simply for having obtained the land, but for using it efficiently, preserving soil fertility, saving water, and not allowing the land to degrade.
Fourth, the sublease mechanism must be made fully transparent. Sublease contracts should undergo state registration and be reflected in an open register, and the actual user of the land should be clearly identifiable. This encourages efficient land use and reduces the risk of hidden arrangements.
Fifth, the process of legalizing land occupied without authorization must be strictly delimited. The recognition of rights matters for the interests of the population, but it must not encourage new violations of the law. Deadlines, criteria, grounds for refusal, and public oversight must therefore be open.
Sixth, environmental and land reclamation expert review should be mandatory when the category of land is changed. In particular, when irrigated land is transferred to another category, soil fertility, water supply, the level of salinization, and the effect on the food security of the area must be assessed.
Seventh, it is advisable to strengthen parliamentary and public oversight. Open reporting hearings should be held annually on land allocation, changes in land category, the use of agricultural land, unauthorized occupation, and land degradation.
Eighth, it is necessary to create a rapid legal mechanism for land disputes. Pre-trial resolution of disputes related to the cadastre, lease, auctions, inheritance, construction, and changes in land category, as well as mediation and specialized legal advisory services, should be strengthened.
Ninth, an open rating of land use efficiency should be introduced. It is advisable to publish open indicators by region on rational land use, reduction of salinization, adoption of water-saving technologies, bringing idle land into circulation, and reduction of land disputes.
Conclusion
In Uzbekistan, the reform of land relations is moving in the right direction: transparency in land allocation is increasing, the electronic auction system is expanding, ownership and lease rights are being consolidated, and the efficient use of agricultural land and the protection of land are being raised to the level of state policy.
At the present stage, however, the main task is to consolidate scattered legal norms into a single, comprehensible, and modern Land Code. The new Land Code should be not an ordinary legal and technical document, but a strategic foundation guaranteeing the country's food security, investment climate, environmental sustainability, and the property rights of citizens.
Land is not an ordinary economic asset. It is a nationwide asset connected with the well-being of the people, the freedom of enterprise, rural development, water and food security, and the interests of future generations. The next stage of land-related reforms should therefore be a stage of transition from fair distribution to efficient use, from legal guarantee to environmental responsibility, and from separate decisions to a single code.
Jahongir Isaev,
Head of Department,
Sustainable Development Center