Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 5
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
The Ministry of Agriculture of Turkmenistan and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Office have signed in Ashgabat a joint work plan for 2019, Trend reports with reference to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry.
The sides will work towards implementing the project “Supporting climate resilient livelihoods in agricultural communities in drought-prone areas of Turkmenistan.”
It was earlier reported that as part of the project, the pilot farms on the territory of four districts of Lebap and Dashoguz regions are assisted in drawing up and implementing the adaptation plans for implementation of agricultural production and management of water resources.
The main part of the annual budget of the project has been invested in irrigation technologies, the purchase of pumping equipment, transformer, kits for laser-based land planning and the construction of power transmission lines (PTL) in these regions.
The specialists are examining the AquaCrop, ClimWat, EToCalculator, Emotion Ltd. software in order to optimize water use and to enhance productivity of fields in Turkmenistan, the message says.
One of the aspects of the project is to contribute to the improvement of national legislation, in particular, to prepare provisions on the procedure of maintenance of the state land cadastre, soil evaluation, economic assessment of irrigated lands.
In 2017, another project entitled as "Addressing Climate Change Risks to Farming Systems in Turkmenistan at National and Community Level" was completed.
Turkmenistan is home to one of the largest sand deserts in the world – the Karakum desert (translated from the Turkmen language as "Black Sands"), which covers most of the country's territory - 350,000 square kilometers.
The Zaunguz Karakum, the Central Karakum, the Lowland Karakum and the Southeast Karakum are distinguished in the composition of this ecosystem.