Project title: Mitigating the competition for Water in the Amudarya River Basin by improving water use efficiency

Principal investigator: Kakhramon Djumaboev

Co-Principal Investigator: James Ayars

Duration: 1 November,2015 – 30 October,2018

Date: 20.10.2019

Local partners: UzGIP in Uzbekistan and Sogd WMO in Tajikistan

Irrigated areas of Aral Sea Basin

Karshi steppe

Sughd province

Source: IWMI,2016

Importance of research problem

Central Asia is known with its large pump stations, where the water is lifted to a large scale irrigation systems from both Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers.

2.2 million hectares land out of 4.3 million hectare under pump irrigation. 70% of pump units outdated and have low efficiency. About 21% of generated energy of Uzbekistan is used for pump operations

Surkhandarya (66%), Kashkadarya (80%) and Bukhara (100%) in Amudarya basin in Uzbekistan.

Sogd province of Tajikistan 70% of irrigated area under lift irrigation in Syrdarya basin and 16% of energy of Tajikistan.

Study objectives

Research steps

Creating a spatial data base for estimating the sub-basin water and energy use efficiency using a combination of archival data collection, field data collection, and (RS/GIS) methods;

Documenting best practices of farmers on water and land management implemented in past in the region, and; the experience of USDA-ARS in achieving on farm and basin scale water savings;

Assessing the potential impact of improvements in the water use efficiency and energy use intensity through development of different scenarios of water and energy savings;

Based on research findings prepare key policy recommendations for policy makers to improve existing water management strategies in the lift irrigated areas of Central Asia;

GEODATABASE OF KASHKADARYA PROVINCE

Geodatabase is a collection of

geographic datasets of various

types held in a common file system.

Content:

- Agricultural administration

- Ground water

- Water resources

- Climate

- Soil

- Land cover/use

- Vegetation

- Crop classification

Methods:

- Analogue data

- Satellite image analyses

- Climate model

- Field trips

THEMATIC MAPS FOR KASHKADARYA PROVINCE

Documenting water saving technologies

Documenting Water saving technologies in the farmers’ fields in Karshi Steppe

Comparison of traditional and drip irrigation

methods in the “Najotkor” farm, Karshi steppe

Project demo site and involvement of Master and PhD students in data collection and analysis

Methodology to assess Water and Energy Needs of lift irrigation areas

(Adapted from DACCACHE et al., 2014)

Research results in Karshi steppe

Research results in Zafarabad

Current

Improve

d

irrigatio

n

practice

s

Current

Improved

irrigation

practices

Current

Improved

irrigation

practices

Current

Improved

irrigation

practices

Wheat 6388 662 546.8 42 35 7 41 34 7 237864 196471 41393

Cotton 12220 1302 885.2 159 108 51 127 87 41 737078 501123 235956

Alfalfa 5975 1367 1320.8 82 79 3 71 68 2 409272 395440 13832

Maize 1047 1040 850.7 11 9 2 12 9 2 67067 54860 12208

Vegetable 932 1289 619.1 12 6 6 10 5 5 59417 28538 30880

Melon 1172 1289 767.9 15 9 6 13 8 5 74903 44622 30281

Trees 1849 730 535.1 13 10 4 12 8 3 66831 48988 17843

Rice 200 3600 2491.9 7 5 2 4 2 1 20623 14275 6348

Total 29783 N/A  N/A  341.8 260.6 81 289 222 67 1673055 1284316 388739

Total

energy

saving,

GWh

Pumping cost, USD

Pumping

cost,

USD

Crop

Total

pumped

area, ha

Irrigation

application, mm

Total water use,

MCMTotal

water

saving,

MCM

Electricity

consumption, GWh

Peer reviewed publications

Capacity building activities under USAID PEER Cycle 4 projectin Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

Students supported under USAID PEER Cycle 4

Gulchehra Eshmuratova, a bachelor’s student at TIIAME defended her BSc Thesis. Her thesis title is: Water balance and irrigation regime scheduling for cotton using advanced technologies (GIS and RS) under Karshi steppe conditions

Shovkat Khodjaev, 2014-2016 Master student at German Kazakh University, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Thesis title: Implementation of Smart Water Technology in river basin scale.

Uktam Adkhamov, Bachelor Student, 2012 – 2016, Bachelor Student at Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Melioration, Thesis title: Modelling of soil moisture and cotton crop yields in the condition of drip and furrow irrigation in Karshi Steppe.

Zafar Gafurov, PhD student, 2015-2018, Research Institute of Uzhydromet: Study of changing Eto values for Kashkadarya region under climate change using GIS & RS.

Rustam Karshiev started his PhD thesis under PEER project in Karshi Steppe and he is affiliated with TIIAME. His research is focused on Impact of water conservation technologies on energy use in Lift Irrigated area.

Policy dialogue workshops organized in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

Dissemination of project results in international and national conferences

Policy recommendations

Study results indicate that current government policies on energysubsidy in lift irrigated areas such as Karshi Steppe do not support waterand energy savings. Therefore if government shifts subsidies fromenergy to water saving technologies in lift irrigated areas it will improvewater and energy use efficiency in Karshi Steppe in Uzbekistan.

It is essential to develop advanced on-farm water management practicesconcurrently with eliminating energy subsidies in agriculture to increasewater productivity, reduce energy demand and protect the environmentin Central Asia.

In order to better natural resources management, there is a need tointroduce institutions and policies to create incentives for water andenergy saving, which is currently missing in the region;

There is a need to develop database or information base on naturalresource use in agriculture to quantify water and energy use efficiencyfrom on-farm to river basin levels, which can inform strategies forsustainable natural resources management.

Project impacts and outcomes

Introduction of drip irrigation in Karshi Steppe and its cost effectiveness study within framework of USAID PEER Cycle 4 project widely disseminated in mass media and in particular contributed government subsidy program for installation of drip irrigation system for each hectare of land in Uzbekistan.

IWMI’s Kakhramon Djumaboev recently met with representatives of thepresidential administration of Uzbekistan. He was invited as a key watermanagement expert who works in the country to assist the government indeveloping a concept on water resources management.

USAID PEER Cycle 4 project results highly appreciated IWMI’s research in the region.ADB involved IWMI-CA researchers for their project called Climate Adaptive WaterResources Management in the Aral Sea Basin, where IWMI researchers have todevelop similar geodatabase and assess crop water productivity for major crops andstudy feasibility of introduction of water and energy saving technologies inproposed subprojects in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Thank you

Email: k.djumaboev@cgiar.org