Comparison of practices

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

Use of water resources

Country: Turkmenistan

Province: Mary Region

District: Sakarçäge District

Other settlement: Zakhmet Daikhan Farm

Country: Uzbekistan

Province: Fergana Region

District: Qo'shtepa District

Other settlement: Komilzhon Kurbonov Sakhovati Farm

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.

• Upper stream of the Syr Darya River (Fergana Region);
• Central climatic zone;
• Shallow ground water occurrence;
• Irrigated agriculture within a closed horizontal drainage (CHD) zone

Start date: 01.01.2009

End date: 31.12.2010

Start date: 01.01.2014

End date: 31.12.2015

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.

Deficiency of irrigation water during certain periods of vegetation

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

Technology of crop irrigation via ground water feeding the level of which is regulated by means of a control device installed in the observation well

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.

The gate devices used abroad are expensive and inconvenient as to their maintenance.  The control device designed by the ICWC Research Center allows regulating ground water level (GWL) by way of altering the device’s height (for example, its height can be 90 cm).  Besides, it is easily installed and dismantled after use.

Actions:

1. Selection and justification of the choice of a plot for potential drainage (admissible ground water mineralization should not exceed 3 g/l);
2. Detailed analysis of interaction between irrigation and drainage on the level of farms and WUAs (Water User Associations);
3. Mounting and installation of GWL control device;
4. Fitting the drained plot with modern tools and monitoring the elements of water-salt balance in the aeration zone;
5. Impact assessment of water supply and GWL regulation on soil humidity and salination, drainage discharge and drainage water mineralization as well as crops productivity.

Results:

Financial and economic:

• Low overall costs of the GWL control device compared to similar foreign devices;
• Increased (5-8%) productivity of winter wheat compared to control land plot.

Technical:

rational use of surface water.

Environmental:

reduced drainage.

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 approach has been proved as a constructive way of converting research outcomes into real-life solutions.  The approach will also help expanding the results of controlled drainage from the field level to the level of WUA and, over time, up to the level of irrigation system.

Recommendations:

It is necessary to scale-up the practice in other regions and districts with identical conditions of irrigated land and install this control model in other CHD zones.

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).

Project title: Management of irrigation and drainage systems for sustainable productivity growth in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia.

Project duration: Aug 2014-Dec 2015.

Project goals: improve irrigation and drainage systems and enhance the efficiency of crops watering.

Project objectives: manage GWL by way of controlling CHD with the aim of increasing crops water supply, enhance irrigation efficiency and decrease the amount of drainage and pollutants discharge; assess the influence of water supply and CHD regulation on soil humidity and drainage discharge; assess the difference of drainage and drainage water quality between controlled (managed) and conventional drainage models.

Project beneficiaries: target farm.

Project implementer: ICWC SIC.

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

Dukhovny, V., Kenjabaev, Sh., Yakubov, Sh., Umirzakov, G., 2017. Controlled sub-surface drainage as a strategy for improved water management in irrigated agriculture of Uzbekistan.  Transactions of the 13th International Drainage Workshop of ICID “Drainage and environmental sustainability”, Ahwaz, Iran, March 4-7, 2017.

Collection of research works by ICWC SIC, 15^th Issue, Tashkent City, pp. 109-114.

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC