Comparison of practices

• Use of water resources
• Use of land resources

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

Country: Kazakhstan

Province: Almaty region

District: Alakol District

Other settlement: Yntaly Rural District (320 km away from Taldykorgan (region center))

Country: Turkmenistan

Province: Mary Region

District: Sakarçäge District

Other settlement: Zakhmet Daikhan Farm

Foothill area

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.

Start date: 01.01.2008

End date: 31.12.2010

Start date: 01.01.2009

End date: 31.12.2010

After disintegration of large agricultural enterprises (state farms), the maintenance of inter- and intra-farm irrigation systems – that were earlier on the balance of state farms – appeared to exceed the technical capacity of small-scale private and owner-operated farms.  Due to this reason, in the majority of agricultural districts the tray irrigation networks got out of order.  The wear of the lion’s share of hydraulic engineering facilities in Alakol District reached nearly 70% leading to water losses associated with crops watering – the analysis showed that 40% of water was lost to filtration and evaporation.  In its turn, that resulted in ineffective and irrational use of water resources and contraction of irrigated land area.  For example, whereas in 2003 water intake for irrigation amounted to 195 mln m³, in 2009 it decreased to 114.8 mln m³ (41.1% drop).

Issue: Low efficiency of irrigation water due to wear of hydraulic engineering facilities/installations (tray irrigation system).

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.

Drip irrigation in combination with soil mulching with polyethylene film

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

Drip irrigation combined with filming has been widely adopted around the world in vegetable and cucurbits cultivation.  Thanks to long moisture preservation and proper thermal balance achieved under film, deployment of this technology allows reducing the overall need for irrigation water and receiving earlier and higher crop yields.

Actions:

The K-DEN Farm was offered to apply drip irrigation through film cover on the area of 5 hectares in Yntaly Rural District.  The technique was adapted for project site by Doctor of Engineering R.I. Vagapov. The recommended technology is the most available to local farmers and ensures significant saving of irrigation water.

Necessary resources:

1) seeds of vegetable and cucurbit crops;

2) polyethylene film;

3) equipment (DT-75 tractor, seeder, cultivator);

4) labor for preparatory works, sowing and harvest campaigns;

5) expert consultations and training.

Results:

Financial and economic:

The yield of vegetable and cucurbit crops increased twofold compared to two previous years allowing the farm to receive the profit of $12,000/ha in spite of the fact that the whole yield was sold at low price to the local population of Eastern Kazakhstan and Almaty Regions.  In particular, the productivity of vegetable crops amounted to 350-400 dt/ha, and cucurbits – 400 dt/ha.

Technical:

Water saving made 220,040 m³.

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.

Lessons learnt:

The practice of drip irrigation in combination with the application of polyethylene film has increased the efficiency of water use and crops productivity as well as reduced labor needs.

Recommendations:

The widespread deployment of water-saving technologies requires the presence of effective financial incentives for at water consumers.

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

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.

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: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

Project title: Integrated preservation of globally significant wetlands as dwelling places of migrating birds.

Project duration: May 2008-Sept 2010.

Project goal and objectives: assessment of agro-economic and environmental efficiency of technology of sprinkling irrigation on vegetable crops; establishment of optimum watering regimes for vegetable crops based on mist sprinkling irrigation.

Project beneficiaries: peasants (farmers) and agricultural producers.

Project implementer: K-DEN Farm

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).

K-DEN Farm,

Mr. Afrikan Konstantinovich Kim, farm head

(ph.: +7 701 227 27 49, +7 701 672 85 85)

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

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC