Comparison of practices

• Use of water resources
• Use of land resources
• Environmental protection

• Use of water resources
• Use of land resources

Country: Turkmenistan

Province: Mary Region

District: Sakarçäge District

Other settlement: Zakhmet Daikhan Farm

Country: Kazakhstan

Province: Almaty region

District: Karasay District

Sakar-Chaga District (area of 53,000 ha; population of 132,000 people) is located in the northwestern part of Mary Region in the Murgab River delta. The majority of local residents live in the oasis hosting 80% of settlements.

Foothill zone in southeastern Kazakhstan, dark-chestnut and middle loamy soils

Start date: 01.01.2009

End date: 31.12.2010

Start date: 01.01.2014

End date: 31.12.2016

Land salination represents the main challenge in the area due to improper irrigation technology and lack of drainage, in their turn leading to extremely low productivity. With time, the existing irrigation management system resulted in irrational use of water and land. While water distribution rates were calculated in a centralized manner depending on specific crops, in practice water supply monitoring is extremely poor – water supply (canals) infrastructure is inconsistent with farmers’ needs leading to excessive and, vice versa, insufficient watering of different sites. In addition, there exists an informal water payment system leading to the advantageous position of certain users.

Irrigation-associated soil erosion, low efficiency of applied watering techniques, poor phytosanitary condition of land used for vegetable growing

Set of hydro-reclamation measures: preventive land forming (leveling), composting, monitoring of ground water bedding and mineralization, decentralized water management planning, capacity building, etc.

Technique and technology of mist sprinkling irrigation

Actions:

A series of measures were executed to prevent land degradation and improve land reclamation condition, including introduction of high-performance drainage systems and reclamation technologies, construction of a new collector and cleaning of the existing one, construction of 9 water-regulating and 2 water-measuring facilities.

Results:

• 50 hectares of degraded land rehabilitated and can be used for agricultural purposes. About 35 ha of land saved from degradation thanks to preventive land forming;
• regular seminars held for land users on potential ways of applying various advanced methods of maintaining rural economy and effective use of water resources;
• about 60 measuring stations installed to monitor the level and mineralization of ground water.

Actions:

A sprinkler (artificial rain irrigation) system installed consisting of 50 mm diameter polyethylene pipes assembled from 10-12 meter segments (5022 SD sprinkler; 3.5 bar pressure; 3.5 mm nozzles; water consumption of 0.87 m3/hour; water distribution area per 1 sprinkler – 12 m).

Results:

Financial and economic:
Compared to ridge-and-furrow watering method, sprinkler irrigation led to a yield increase for the following crops:
• carrots – 15.64%,
• cabbage – 12.78%,
• sweet pepper – 14.19%.

Technical:
• up to 20% reduced irrigation water consumption,
• prevention of irrigation-induced soil erosion,
• improved phytosanitary condition of vegetable fields.

Lessons learnt:

• salinized land was rehabilitated not only thanks to reclamation actions but also by composting. In particular, high-quality humus is produced to enhance soil salinity parameters;
• the process of designing water use plans for individual farmers launched;
• one new collector built.

Recommendations:

It is necessary to focus on strengthening the role of local associations in rendering irrigation services and managing the canal’s water level.  Local water users will be rendered an opportunity to design effective irrigation water management schemes.  The experience of decentralized water planning and management accumulated by water tenants will be documented and distributed as a part of knowledge-management (capacity-building) strategy.  It is necessary to closely cooperate with the newly established Agriculture Advisory Service working on sustainable land and water management, as well as to disseminate corresponding practices in other areas.

Lessons learnt:
The practice demonstrated the possibility of effec-tive water use, reducing labor costs, and increasing yields of several horticultural crops simultaneously.

Recommendations:
Widespread introduction of sprinkler-based mist irrigation systems along with drip irrigation and other advanced water-efficient technologies is necessary. In order to ensure that, water users should have strong financial incentives to facilitate water saving.

Domestic tools (outcomes of research by domestic R&D organizations)

• Domestic tools (outcomes of research by domestic R&D organizations),
• Foreign tools (transfer of foreign experience)

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

Project title: Local-level capacity building and investment for sustainable management of land resources.

Project duration: 2009-2010.

Project goal and objectives: overcoming barriers to higher efficiency and performance of water supply systems in climate change induced drought conditions.

Project beneficiaries: Zakhmet Daikhan Farm (approximately 300 daikhan households).

Project implementer: Ministry of Nature Protection of Turkmenistan and German Technical Cooperation Agency (GIZ).

http://www.turkmenistan.ru/?page_id=3&lang_id=ru&elem_id=17207&type=event&layout=print&sort=date_desc 

The PhD thesis “Efficiency of mist (sprinkler) irriga-tion technology for vegetable crops in southeastern Kazakhstan” describing a vegetable (cabbage, carrots, sweet pepper) cultivation technology based on fine sprinkling irrigation developed for the first time for soil and climatic conditions of foothill zone in southeastern Kazakhstan, including an optimal mode of vegetables irrigation via fine overhead sprinkler-based irrigation was developed, as well as analyzing the effects of sprinkler irrigation on biomass formation and crops capacity.

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC