Baku, Azerbaijan, September 11
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $249.8 million equivalent loan in local currency (tenge) to the Kazakhstan’s Republican State Enterprise Kazvodkhoz (KVK), a state-owned enterprise dealing with water facilities, to help in rehabilitation and improvement of irrigation networks serving 171,000 ha of land in four provinces of the country, Trend reports with reference to the bank.
The loan, guaranteed by the Government of Kazakhstan, will improve the country’s agricultural productivity and promote the diversification of agricultural products from traditional low-yielding and low-value crops into high-value cash crops. The four provinces under the project are East Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kyzylorda, and Zhambyl.
“Agriculture is an important part of Kazakhstan’s economy, employing 18 percent of the labor force and contributing 4.4 percent of the country’s GDP. However, the sector’s contribution to the country’s economy has been decreasing,” ADB Principal Water Resources Specialist for Central and West Asia Yaozhou Zhou said.
“Making sure that reliable irrigation water is available will help to realize the agriculture sector’s potential to further contribute to the country’s growth and development.”
The project will rehabilitate and improve about 245 irrigation schemes in the four provinces, which will include re-sectioning, and repairing damaged sections of line canals. The total length of new concrete-lined canals will be about 1,064 kilometers, while 1,976 kilometers of earth canals will be improved.
Other infrastructure work issues include construction and rehabilitation of about 4,185 hydraulic structures, including water measuring devices; improvement of 358 kilometers of drainage collectors; establishment of a drip irrigation system covering 9,300 ha in Zhambyl; and the installation of 24 supervisory control and data acquisition system in all project areas.
Apart from capacity building efforts that includes assistance to agriculture cooperatives, the project will also pilot a system to monitor water and agricultural productivity using remote sensing technology in selected irrigation systems.
The project will help improve KVK’s capacity for tariff planning and financial sustainability, and extend its advisory services to farmers regarding on-farm water management and crop choices.
Total cost of the project is $320.88 million, with KVK contributing $71.08 million in financing. The project is expected to be completed in mid-2025.
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