Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 9
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection of Turkmenistan is implementing a joint project with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Trend reports with reference to the Neytralni Turkmenistan newspaper.
The project aims to support climate-resilient economic livelihoods of agricultural communities in arid regions.
As part of the project, a seminar was recently held in the Danev district of the Lebap region of Turkmenistan based on the operation of the first waterworks of the irrigation system “Berzen”, the report said.
The seminar participants were familiarized with the design of the hydrometric station and the technical condition of the fixed channel of a small irrigation canal.
Irrigated agriculture of Turkmenistan is the biggest consumer of water resources. In this regard, the introduction of innovative water accounting technologies in arid climate conditions is the basis for solving the problem of increasing the efficiency of agriculture.
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.
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.
In Central Asia, rivers are the main sources of water resources used for agriculture and industry, the production of electricity, the supply of drinking water to the population, and almost all of them are transboundary ones.
Turkmenistan borders with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Afghanistan and uses water resources that come in accordance with agreed quotas from four transboundary rivers: Amu Darya, Tejen, Atrek and Murghab.