CENTRAL ASIA: Poorly maintained irrigation systems threaten agriculture
OSH, 19 August 2009 (IRIN): Water scarce Central Asia relies heavily on irrigation (overrisling) to grow the food it needs to support its increasing population, but a new report says more needs to be done to upgrade existing systems.
The report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released on 18 August is entitled “Revitalizing Asias Irrigation: To sustainably meet tomorrows food needs”.
It said while 34 percent of cultivated land in Asia was irrigated, in Central Asia the figure was much higher: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan 61-80 percent; Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan 81-100 percent.
From 1961 to 2003 the area of irrigated land in Central Asia increased from 3,4 million hectares to 10,1 million hectares, the report said, though some experts attribute most of the rise to Soviet efforts.
Central Asia is critical to global agriculture and has some of the largest irrigation systems in the world, but there has been a marked lack of investment since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the report said.
The situation has not been helped by the drying up of huge lakes like the Aral Sea.
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