TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 5. The World Bank advocates for enhanced efficiency in the utilization of water for irrigation in Uzbekistan, Trend reports.
“Agriculture’s extreme reliance on irrigation exposes the economy to risks of large losses from droughts and water shortages, calling for increased water-use efficiency in irrigation,” latest Uzbekistan Country Climate and Development Report by WB said.
The report said that agricultural yields in Uzbekistan are projected to shrink by 10 percent by 2050 without extensive interventions to improve water-use efficiency or to increase by up to 62 percent with measures to modernize irrigation infrastructure and adopt more efficient water management practices.
“The productivity of irrigation water varies across the country, but current irrigation efficiency is low, at about 40 percent. Although 4.3 million hectares of land are equipped for irrigation, only 2.6 million hectares were irrigated in 2019,” the WB’s experts note.
The World Bank stresses that multiple factors may prevent the use of irrigation and drainage infrastructure, including infrastructure damage, electricity shortages, and salinization of soils, which can lead to the abandonment of agricultural lands, and lack of water availability due to competing uses, such as for urban and industrial centers.