The Virgin Lands are in Kazakhstan. They were a project by the Soviet Union to develop lands in West Siberia for agriculture. Wheat is the most popular agricultural product. Kazakhstan is the largest of the Central Asian countries and it also has the most resources. There are deposits of coal and iron ore.
Oil is a big producer and it's found mostly by the Caspian Sea.
The agriculture in Uzbekistan is irrigated by water from rivers normally flowing into the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea disaster left the water dangerously polluted with high cancer rates. Uzbekistan received the most of this disaster and so its agriculture and irrigation have suffered. Uzbekistan is the world's 3rd largest cotton producer because of their irrigation techniques. They desperately need the income from the cotton, but it's being threatened.