The relationship between climate variability and wheat yield in Tashkent province

This study focuses on the relationships between climate variability and wheat yield in Tashkent province. It contains a time series study of precipitation, temperature, and wheat yield, as well as the assessment of the link between yield and climatic factors and an examination of the influence of climate change on crop production using a regression model. Time series results of temperature present a positive trend in mean temperature in Bustanlik and Urtachirchik. Annual minimum temperature, the minimum temperature in spring, minimum temperature between September and May have changed significantly in Bustanlik over the years (p<0.05). Total precipitation shows a favourable trend in Bustanlik but a negative trend in Urtachirchik. There is no significant change detected in the time series. The magnitude of the change in climate variables shows no clear tendency. Wheat yield has changed significantly and increased up to 1.34 c/ha every year between 1998-2014. The highest association is determined between wheat yield and minimum temperature in the growing season (0.77) while the highest correlation was identified with the summer maximum temperature (-0.41) in Urtachirchik. The linear multiple regression model forecasted the wheat yield with a mean error of 0.08 c/ha in Urtachirchik and 0.06 c/ha in Bustanlik district

Assessment of temperature and precipitation trends in Kashkadarya, Uzbekistan

Climate change is one of the most important environmental issues that occur human-induced with large-scale social, economic, and environmental impacts. Climate models, which have been widely performed in the last decades, allow a study of change in climate variables and their impact on the environment. The present study was conducted to study changes in temperature and precipitation between 2006-2041 in the southern part of Uzbekistan. The results showed that the average temperature decreased from 14.53 °C during 2006-2010 to 14.40 °C during 2011-2015. Monthly average minimum temperature ranges (increases) from east to west in the region during all months of the year for both shared socio-economic pathways in 2021-2040. The minimum and maximum precipitation amount constituted 11.23 mm and 55.91 mm in the region, correspondingly within 2006-2010, whereas these amounts increased during the second period (2011-2015), 11.96 mm and 60.28 mm. Precipitation will not change sharply from SSP2.6 to SSP8.5 from 2021 to 2040

Economic aspects of value added agriculture in Uzbekistan

The goal of this paper is to analyse socio-economic role of value added agriculture in Uzbekistan. The main agricultural exports are cotton (raw and yarn), fruits, vegetables, leather, wool and fur. There is an opportunity to acquire more social and economic advantages by exporting finished goods, which are made out of primary agricultural commodities. Adding value to agricultural products lead to increasing the share of finished goods in export, supplying import-substituting products, improving infrastructure in rural areas, providing new jobs and growing people’s income. The paper presents the analyse of the agriculture sector in GDP and the production dynamics of the primary agricultural commodities during 2005-2014, as well as comparison the share of cotton, fruits, vegetables and leather in export in 2005 and 2014. Based on the analyses it is recommended to widely use value added agriculture in order to support people, who are living in rural areas in Uzbekistan

Impact and sustainability of Erasmus Mundus CASIA and TIMUR projects : Represented by individual results and achievements of grantees

The aim of this publication is to summarize the main results of 8 years Erasmus Mundus Partnershipprojects leaded by Wageningen University, Department of Environmental Science. From 2010 till 2018Department of Environmental Sciences was leading CASIA and TIMUR projects within the frameworkof EU ERASMUS Mundus program involving partners form Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan andTajikistan - www.eu-casia.org and www.eu-timur.org. CASIA and TIMUR projects wider objective wasthe establishment of a sustainable / operational network for academic exchange between Central Asia(CA) and European countries with a view to creating centres of excellence. Projects grantedscholarships for students at Undergraduate, Master, Doctorate, Post-Doctorate level and Academicstaff to come and study at EU partner universities. The study periods covered by scholarships varyfrom 1 month (for academic staff) up to 3 years (for Doctorates). CASIA and TIMUR Partnerships(2010-2018) offered in total 427 scholarships on different levels for which EU Erasmus Mundusprogram allocated a total budget of 8.4 million Euro. In this report, CASIA & TIMUR grantees – studentsand academic staff - are presenting their individual experiences, results and impressions achieved duringacademic mobility to Europe in the period from 2010-2018. The individual benefits of each grantee arevery important for personal development, professional career and international cooperation

Satellite thermography for soil salinity assessment of cropped areas in Uzbekistan

A change of canopy temperature can indicate stress in vegetation. Use of canopy temperature to assess salt stress in specific plant species has been well studied in laboratory and greenhouse experiments, but its potential for use in landscape-level studies using remote sensing techniques has not yet been explored. Our study investigated the application of satellite thermography to assess soil salinity of cropped areas at the landscape level. The study region was Syrdarya Province, a salt-affected, irrigated semi-arid province of Uzbekistan planted mainly to cotton and wheat. We used moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer satellite images as an indicator for canopy temperature and the provincial soil salinity map as a ground truth dataset. Using analysis of variance, we examined relations among the soil salinity map and canopy temperature, normalized difference vegetation index, enhanced vegetation index, and digital elevation model. The results showed significant correlations between soil salinity and canopy temperature, but the strength of the relation varied over the year. The strongest relation was observed for cotton in September. The calculated F values were higher for canopy temperature than for the other indicators investigated. Our results suggest that satellite thermography is a valuable landscape-level approach for detecting soil salinity in areas under agricultural crops

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Conservation Agriculture Implementation in Syrdarya Province of Uzbekistan

Most irrigated lands of Central Asia suffer from land degradation, and unsustainable agricultural practices are one of the factors contributing to land degradation. Conservation agriculture (CA) is seen as a way to mitigate land degradation and rationalize resource use. The aim of this article is to investigate the efficiency of CA implementation in the Syrdarya province of Uzbekistan, Central Asia by carrying out a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The CBA was conducted for a hypothetical situation where the farm decides to switch from conventional agriculture to CA. Unlike the previous studies, this study investigates complete crop rotation cycle in the long-term period. The study outcomes suggest that investment in CA implementation results in positive incremental benefit if the advantages of CA are monetized

Scoping of promising land management and water use practices in the dry areas of Uzbekistan

Addressing water scarcity in dryland areas requires identification of promising water-saving practices. This paper reviews the effect of land management and water use practices on Water Productivity (WP) in Uzbekistan and makes an inventory of strengths and constraints. Peer-reviewed articles were screened for various local practices including furrow, deficit and drip irrigation. The performance of practices was analysed using the WP concept, defined as ratio of crop yield per unit of water consumed (irrigation water supply and evapotranspiration). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of selected practices were studied by conducting semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders in Tashkent province. This scoping process showed that overall drip irrigationhas the highest potential to improve WP in comparison with deficit and furrow irrigation, with a WP supply and WP evapotranspiration for cotton of 1.44 and 1.70 kg m−3, respectively. An excess use of irrigation water is not necessarily leading to increased cotton yield. There is an opportunity to decrease the gap between low and high values of WP, which vary from 0.12–1.44 kg m−3 for cotton. Low water use efficiency rates of furrow irrigation are one of the key-issues to resolve for improved water management. The return on investment of drip irrigation is viable for private farms growing fruit and vegetables, which is mainly due to government support through export trade agreements and favorable policy incentives. WP values of deficit irrigation within 0–25% water stress shows that its water saving potential is high, but with certain yield reduction. The high risk of crop yield reduction is a trade-off between yield and adopting deficit irrigation. To conclude, the large gap between low and high WP values can be minimized with economically affordable technology. Beyond the technical improvements of each water-saving practice, it is also crucial to better design the system of policy incentives supporting users of the practices. Although the paper focused on Uzbekistan, the results can be beneficial to other semi-arid regions and the scoping process can be replicated elsewhere

Scoping of promising land management and water use practices in the dry areas of Uzbekistan

Addressing water scarcity in dryland areas requires identification of promising water-saving practices. This paper reviews the effect of land management and water use practices on Water Productivity (WP) in Uzbekistan and makes an inventory of strengths and constraints. Peer-reviewed articles were screened for various local practices including furrow, deficit and drip irrigation. The performance of practices was analysed using the WP concept, defined as ratio of crop yield per unit of water consumed (irrigation water supply and evapotranspiration). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of selected practices were studied by conducting semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders in Tashkent province. This scoping process showed that overall drip irrigationhas the highest potential to improve WP in comparison with deficit and furrow irrigation, with a WP supply and WP evapotranspiration for cotton of 1.44 and 1.70 kg m−3, respectively. An excess use of irrigation water is not necessarily leading to increased cotton yield. There is an opportunity to decrease the gap between low and high values of WP, which vary from 0.12–1.44 kg m−3 for cotton. Low water use efficiency rates of furrow irrigation are one of the key-issues to resolve for improved water management. The return on investment of drip irrigation is viable for private farms growing fruit and vegetables, which is mainly due to government support through export trade agreements and favorable policy incentives. WP values of deficit irrigation within 0–25% water stress shows that its water saving potential is high, but with certain yield reduction. The high risk of crop yield reduction is a trade-off between yield and adopting deficit irrigation. To conclude, the large gap between low and high WP values can be minimized with economically affordable technology. Beyond the technical improvements of each water-saving practice, it is also crucial to better design the system of policy incentives supporting users of the practices. Although the paper focused on Uzbekistan, the results can be beneficial to other semi-arid regions and the scoping process can be replicated elsewhere

Soil Electroconductivity as a Proxy to Monitor the Desertification in the Hungry Steppe (Uzbekistan)

Soil salinity caused by desertification is a principal limiting factor for agriculture and lands development in Central Asia. High spatial heterogeneity of soil salinity constrains monitoring desertification and decision making on land management and soil remediation. Low-cost express methods to monitor soil salinity are highly demanded especially at the regions, where implementation of more expensive conventional measurements is constrained due to budget limitations. This research aimed to test onsite and laboratory measurements of soil electroconductivity (EC) as a proxy of soil salinity in the Hungry Steppe (Syrdarya province of Uzbekistan). Four Water Consumer Associations (WCA) with different land quality were analyzed and the EC observations were compared to the results derived from soil salinity maps. An overall satisfactory performance of the indicator was shown with an average 28% of the correctly predicted soil salinity classes. Field EC observations significantly positively correlated to the lab observations (r = 0.57; p < 0.05), but underestimated the absolute values in 66% of the cases. The best performance (53% of corrected predictions) was obtained for the Beruni WCA with the lowers land quality, therefore EC can be recommended as a relevant proxy in areas with high salinity rather than in areas with low concentrations of water-soluble salts