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: Uzbekistan

Province: Tashkent Region

District: Parkent District

Other settlement: Baikazan 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.

Steep foothill terrain

Start date: 01.01.2009

End date: 31.12.2010

Start date: 01.01.2006

End date: 31.12.2006

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.

Issues: loss of water in temporary water distributers, low plot use ratio, difficulties with regulating water supply to irrigation furrows, low irrigator labor productivity

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

Portable polyethylene trays (PPL-50) of semi-circular section

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:

1. Water supply using PPL-50 is possible from: a) reinforced concrete trays, b) covered network, c) temporary earthen water distributers;
2. Prior to watering, the trays are manually distributed along the route and installed with required inclination perpendicular to the furrows in the beginning of the irrigated site. Sections are inserted into each other;
3. After adjustment, the kit is capable of ensuring the desired watering regime;
4. In case of long furrows (150+ m) layer watering is used with the application of flexible polyethylene film hoses (D=300 mm);
5. Depending on specific site conditions, inter-row spacing and crop type, the size of irrigation streams is regulated by way of adjusting the water supply control gate.

Results:

• 20-30% reduction of field unproductive losses;
• Increased productivity (2-4 dt/ha for wheat, 3-4 dt/ha for cotton);
• At least twofold increase of irrigator labor productivity;
• Increased land use ratio (1.5-2.5%).

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:

PPL-50 can be used for watering cotton with 0.9 and 0.6 m row-spacing as well as vegetable and cucurbit crops with 0.3 m row-spacing.

Recommendations:

It is recommended to apply:

• PPL-50 (D=300 mm) in steep foothill conditions;
• PPL-50 (D=500 mm) in flat terrain;
• Prior to using the system in flat terrain conditions, it is desirable to do land planning.

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

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

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: Moderate

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha: $7.6

3. O&M costs: Moderate

4. Expert support: Needed at implementation stage

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: Adaptation of contour furrows and layer watering via portable trays: research on establishing permanent furrows on the premises of Baikazan Farm of Parkent District.

Project duration: 2005-2006.

Project goal and objectives: improve local living standards and food security among rural residents as well as preserve soil fertility in farms located on sloped terrain by way of watering via contour furrows based on the greatest inclination and layer arrangement of assembly polyethylene trays.  The short-term project objective was to demonstrate the technology of watering via contour furrows based on the greatest inclination of sloped terrain and layer arrangement of assembly polyethylene trays.

Project beneficiaries: farms and dekhan farms.

Project implementer: ICARDA

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

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC