Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 31
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
The Turkmen parliament has adopted a draft law on land melioration, the country’s ministry of agriculture said in a message, the Turkmenistan State News Agency reported.
The document defines the legal, economic and organizational basis for land melioration and regulates the relations arising in this area.
In the socio-economic strategy, special importance in Turkmenistan is attached to the rational use of land and water resources, increasing the manufacture of various agricultural products, environmental protection.
Turkmenistan is mostly desert yet much much of its population is involved in irrigation farming, predominantly of cotton and wheat. About 48 percent of Turkmenistan’s labor force is in agriculture (compared to 2.5 percent in the U.S.). Some 3.7 percent of the land is classified as arable, and less than 0.2 percent is planted to permanent crops. About 17,500 square kilometers are irrigated, mainly for cotton production.