Baku, Azerbaijan, April 3
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Uzbekistan should promote water resource management and climate proofing across borders through collaboration with its neighbors, as water resource management cannot be undertaken on a national scale in isolation from the broader regional context, Trend reports with reference to Asian Development Bank.
ADB reports that agriculture is critical to the livelihoods of the half of Uzbeks who live in rural areas. It provides 27.3 percent of all jobs and contributes nearly one-third of GDP. Rapid population growth averaging 1.9 percent per year from 2005 to 2019 has stressed the country’s limited environmental resources, exacerbating land degradation and water shortages that constrain agricultural output.
ADB states that a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Center for Development Research estimated that over half of cropland suffers soil salinization caused by extensive irrigation, and that the resulting ecosystem changes and suppressed agricultural output cost Uzbekistan about 4 percent of GDP annually. In this arid climate, drought and water shortages are a constant threat. Precipitation in most areas averages less than 600 millimeters per year, and high temperatures can reach 49o Celsius in some areas, requiring river-fed irrigation.
Ministry of Water Resources of Uzbekistan noted that available water resources declined from 64 billion cubic meters (m3) in 1991 to 59 billion m3 in 2018, and population growth almost halved per capita availability from 3,048 m3 to 1,589 m3. In 2018, agriculture received nearly 90 percent of the water supply.
ADB notes that to address salinization and diminished water resources, the government is rehabilitating the irrigation system with investments worth $350 million last year and this year. It is providing incentives to adopt more water-efficient technologies.
ADB underlines that suppliers of imported drip and sprinkler irrigation systems in Uzbekistan are exempted from customs duties for 5 years, and farmers that adopt them are similarly exempted from land tax. At the end of 2018, farmers were applying water-efficient technologies on more than 328,000 hectares. Drip irrigation currently supplies only 43,000 hectares, though, because of the high cost of introducing it.
Asian Development Bank states that despite their benefits, measures implemented in an ad hoc fashion allocate resources inefficiently. Over the next 2 years, the government should accelerate the creation of long-term strategies for agriculture and water resource management and develop an even broader plan for mitigating and adapting to climate change.
These strategies should prioritize farmers’ access to extension services and finance for machinery, and strengthen the security of their land tenure, to promote more efficient use of land and water resources.
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