TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, August 27. A mission was organized in Uzbekistan by FAO senior land and water specialist Maher Salman, who also leads FAO's water management team, under the regional project "Integrated Natural Resource Management in Drought- and Salinity-prone Agricultural Production Landscapes in Central Asia and Türkiye" (CACILM-2) implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Trend reports.
The objective of the mission is to support the system integration of the AquaCrop program in Uzbekistan to optimize crop irrigation. AquaCrop is a crop-wetting system productivity model developed by FAO to assess the impact of environmental conditions and management on crop productivity and food security. The model predicts plant yields as a function of water use, which is particularly important in regions at risk of drought.
"The program creates a computer simulation of plant growth processes taking into account soil and climatic factors and allows determining the necessary amount of irrigation water for maximum crop yields. The application of this program will help to increase land yields with significant savings of water resources, which is in line with the objectives of our project aimed at supporting agricultural production in drought-prone regions through the rational use of natural resources," emphasized the national manager of the CACILM-2 project, Muhammadjon Kosimov.
During the visit, Maher Salman held meetings at a number of Uzbek ministries - the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Ecology, Environment and Climate Change, and the Ministry of Water Resources. He also held a seminar at the Information, Analysis and Resource Center. During the meetings with national partners, the issues of innovative and sustainable water resources management, implementation of the AquaCrop program in Uzbekistan, as well as issues related to drought prevention and its consequences were discussed. Ways in which FAO can help address the challenges of water scarcity through the introduction of modern technologies were considered.
In addition, Maher Salman got acquainted with the results achieved at the pilot sites of CACILM-2 project in Bukhara province. Here, methods of in-soil irrigation and zero tillage with the use of no-till seeders are successfully used.
"During the visit to the pilot plots, we were convinced of the effectiveness of in-soil irrigation and no-tillage from the economic and technical points of view compared to traditional methods. Farmers involved in these methods also confirmed their effectiveness and showed interest in expanding their farms using these methods," said Maher Salman.
The expert also held meetings at the Natural Resources Management Institutes in Bukhara and Samarkand, and visited the Zarafshan Basin Irrigation Department. His further itinerary included Khorezm province, where Maher Salman visited the Left Bank Amudarya Irrigation Basin Department and held meetings at the Agriculture Department of Khorezm province.
From the expert's point of view, to improve water resources monitoring, it is necessary to actively introduce digital tools and platforms, as well as to build capacity in this area. Maher Salman noted that updating of existing hydromodels used for water distribution could be achieved through FAO tools such as RAP-MASSCOTE, AquaCrop and others.