A survey of land, vegetation and irrigation systems in North Afghanistan and neighboring Tajikistan

This paper describes the results of a field expedition work along the rivers Vakhsh and Pyandzh in Tajikistan and Afghanistan within the framework of a Joint Research Project: Investigation of natural resources of Central Asia and reconstruction of agriculture in Afghanistan, supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Japan and represented by professor Tsuneo Tsukatani, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Kyoto Institute of Economics, Kyoto University, Japan; also supported by a Grant in Aid for Scientific Research, The Ministry of Education and Culture of Japan, 2003 (Monbusho International Scientific Joint Research Program, No. 15252002), represented again by professor Tsuneo Tsukatani. The field expedition was carried out in September 2003 according to the Joint Project Research Program to study the natural resources and the contemporary state of irrigation systems in the Pyandzh River basin.Agriculture, Desertification, Environmental policy, Farming system, Irrigation system, North Afghanistan, Pyandzh River, Rangelands improvement, Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI), Water quality

Water resources assessment, irrigation and agricultural developments in Tajikistan

This paper provides a description of current state of water resources assessment in Tajikistan, their use for the agriculture development and maintenance of irrigation infrastructures. The Vakhsh and Pyandzh River Basins and its tributaries in Tajikistan were directly surveyed during an expedition within the framework of a Joint Research Project: Investigation of natural resources of Central Asia and reconstruction of agriculture in Afghanistan, that is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Japan Grant in Aid for Scientific Joint Research, 2003, No. 15252002), that is represented by professor Dr. Tsuneo Tsukatani, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Kyoto Institute of Economics, Kyoto University, Japan. The field expedition was carried out in September 2003 according to the Joint Project Research Program to study the natural resources and contemporary state of irrigation in Pyandzh River basin.water resources, cropping system, irrigation infrastructure, Tajikistan, Subsurface drip irrigation, SDI, Pyandzh, AmuDarya, Kumsangir, Vakhsh

Uranium Mine Aftermath and Yangiabad Expedition in Uzbekistan

This article describes the first half of a history of uranium mines in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia, introduces the existing environment of the old mines, and analyzes a part of heavy metals of water resource in the surrounding. Fergana Valley itself has a long history of civilization, to which Chinese called Dayuan, going back to the conquest of Alexander the Great in 329 BCE or the description of a Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE. After the Second World War, however, Soviet Union polluted the area with heavy metal and radioactivity where a dense monoculture of cotton was developed. A great number of uranium works are located in the landslide zone and are currently exposed to destruction, thus causing radioactive pollution of the surface and underground water. The rehabilitation will cost a huge amount of cost and time. Uzbek and Japanese team dispatched a joint expedition in October 1998 to Yangiabad, one of the former uranium mines, and sampled surface water and particles in the sediments. Japanese side has studied 58 points and Uzbek side has studied 13 random points located in the Yangiabad sites. ICP-MS analysis showed that the uranium concentration of the river water around Yangiabad was unbelievably high (10 to 1,000 ppb-U238).

A survey of land, vegetation and irrigation systems in North Afghanistan and neighboring Tajikistan

This paper describes the results of a field expedition work along the rivers Vakhsh and Pyandzh in Tajikistan and Afghanistan within the framework of a Joint Research Project: Investigation of natural resources of Central Asia and reconstruction of agriculture in Afghanistan, supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Japan and represented by professor Tsuneo Tsukatani, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Kyoto Institute of Economics, Kyoto University, Japan; also supported by a Grant in Aid for Scientific Research, The Ministry of Education and Culture of Japan, 2003 (Monbusho International Scientific Joint Research Program, No. 15252002), represented again by professor Tsuneo Tsukatani. The field expedition was carried out in September 2003 according to the Joint Project Research Program to study the natural resources and the contemporary state of irrigation systems in the Pyandzh River basin

A Farm in Kumsangir of Tajikistan: A Perspective of Water/land Use along Pyandzh River

We carried out an assessment of natural resources use and management along with the on-farm observations and experience gathered through a fieldwork expedition along the riparian basin of Pyandzh River from Tajik side. It is described the natural vegetation irrigation history, technologies, agriculture, crops diversity and farmer development system through this vast area of Khatlon Province of Southwestern Tajikistan. Target area is Kumsangir District and Mumin Farm in the district along Pyandzh River. By performing this survey, we could further examine our preliminary studies on the potentials for agriculture using of Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI) technique on the right bank of Pyandzh River. Many of the local farmers, pastoralist communities, and some of the agricultural authorities and governmental leaders were interviewed to help understand the history of their irrigation infrastructures, their concerns on the issue of land use and agricultural activities, and their outlook and desires to implement cost-effective watershed-scale water saving technologies.natural resources, subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), Pyandzh, Amu Darya, Kumsangir, water quality

Extent of Salt Affected Land in Central Asia: Biosaline Agriculture and Utilization of the Salt-affected Resources

The current status and trends of salinization are discussed with waterlogging of marginal land/plant and water resources problems including strategies for development of integrated biosaline crop-livestock agriculture based system on food-feed crops and forage legumes for better livelihood of poor farmers in Central Asian (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan). Transfer of technologies and/or methodology of ICBA (International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture) in planting of both perennial and annual valuable halophytes (based on around the world dataset from similar sites and conditions) are a new approach that should be tested in Central Asia. Afforestation, as an option to mitigate land degradation, requires a judicious evaluation and selection of multipurpose tree species (MPTS) to make use of marginal unproductive/salt- affected lands and lower the elevated groundwater table (GWT) via biodrainage. The leading among 21 screened native and introduced tree and shrubs species with regards to survival rate, growth characteristics and adaptability to high saline natural environment proved to be Haloxylon apphyllum, Salsola paletzkiana, S. richteri at the saline sandy deserts, followed by atriplex undulate, Hippophae ramnoides, E. angustifolia, Acacia ampliceps, U. pumila, P. euphratica and P. nigra var. pyramidalis, Robinia pseudoacacia, M. alba, Morus nigra on clay loamy hyromorphic soils, whereas fruit species such as Cynadon oblonga, Armeniaca vulgare, Prunus armeniaca and species of genera Malus, though desirable from the farmer's financial viewpoint, showed low bio drainage potential. Planting herbaceous fodder crops within the inter-spaces of fodder salt tolerant trees and shrubs on intensive agro-forestry plantations could solve the animal feeding problem in the degraded (both by overgrazing and salinity) desert and semidesert marginal areas. Yield data of new varieties of sorghum and pearl millet ICBA/ICRISAT germplasm collected at the conclusion of the 2006-2007 growing seasons indicates considerable adaptability of introduced genetic material to saline soil conditions, when compared to local material. Sorghum and pearl millet crop residues utilization could be an option for bio fuel production in the region.

Evaluate the Interactions between Grassland Ecosystems and Precipitation Anomalies under Changing Grazing Intensity in Central Asia

Long term monitoring of grassland being the largest ecosystem on earth plays an important role in understanding its productivity and transformation (changes) over time. With the availability of remote sensing data, most ecological and environmental problems caused either by human activities such as extensive agriculture, pastoralism which might lead to desertification, land degradation, loss of biodiversity and climate change amongst others can be monitored. For this study, vegetation cover was selected as the main source of examination and subsets of area covered with grasslands were profiled for further monitoring of grassland increasing and decreasing trends in selected areas of Central Asia

Utilization of Agriculture Residues and Livestock Waste in Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan, the integration of crops and livestock, and the use of manure as fertilizer, are traditional practices and is the basis of the farming systems, especially at smallholder level. Nowadays local farmers prefer to use traditional and low-cost technologies for recycling the livestock manure through: anaerobic biodigestion (biodigesters); aerobic biodigestion (composting) and by direct application as organic fertilizer. The livestock waste treatment technique, however, are still too simple and improving is going insignificant. The monitoring system of manure composition, or its allocation to the drop fields is not completely developed. Fuel wood in the arid zones of Uzbekistan is often scarce as a result of deforestation and range degradation, leading to the ever-increasing role of animals as providers of manure for fuel, in addition to means of transport. Phasing out of energy subsidies has also caused that livestock manure, is not returned to the land, but used for heating and cooking, because alternative energy sources are no longer available or affordable. A number of local initiatives on improving waste management procedures waste processing enterprise are implemented in different cities. Biomass has been also a traditional energy source for the production of biogas, and a promising direction of energy in the agrarian sector of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has a big potential of biomass energy in the amount of 0.3 million ton of oil equivalent. Energy generated from biomass may satisfy 15-19 % of energy needs of Uzbekistan. Such method of energy production will also resolve the environmental protection issues: use of methane gas considerably reduces CO2 emission into the atmosphere. Besides, the biological residue of the process will provide the country's agriculture with high quality fertilizers. Biogas installations have already been tested at a stock-breeding farm "Milk Agro" in Zangiota village of Tashkent region. Practical results are already achieved: the farm is using biogas for its electricity and heating needs, fertilizers were put on the farm's fields Uzbekistan has also a big potential for production of bioethanol from crop residues and wasted crops: rice straw, wheat straw and corn stover are the most favourable bioethanol feedstock. 15 improved lines tested by ICBA (International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture) in Uzbekistan showed perspectives of sorghum stover for bioethanol production.assessment, agriculture residues, bio-ethanol, bio-gas, marginal lands, livestock waste, Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Environmental Contaminants of Asiatic Deserts Ecosystems in relation to Plants Distribution and Structure

The focus of this research is on the salt/metalliferous pollutants because of their extreme toxicity, carcinogenicity, wide distribution and slow biodegradation under the harsh arid/semiarid environments. The extent of pollution of surface water and plants by various contents of salts, traces of heavy metals is presented for different regions of Zerafshan River Basin and Kyzylkum Desert. Soils and water contaminated with cadmium, copper, lead, zinc, selenium, arsenic, molybdenum, manganese, chromium, various oxidizers (Mn, NO3-, Fe +3, Al +3, ClO3-), NH4 and organic pollutants show natural colonization by species that have strategies of avoidance or tolerance to salt/metal toxities. Mapping of plant colonists of salts/metal contaminated soils, seed reproduction and cellular structures of tolerant taxa named as metallohalophytes are examined in the light of present knowledge of such strategies. Electrolytic adsorption and in situ immobilization technologies for cleaning pollutants of mining contaminated soils and underground water are suggested. Phytoremediation technology in the present case may offer a cost-effective and ecologically sound alternative.ion/salt contents, ICP-MS, glandular structures, metallohalophytes, phytoremediation, contaminated ecosystem, Kyzylkum Desert.

Threshold Tolerance of New Genotypes of Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. to Salinity and Drought

With continued population growth, increasing staple crop production is necessary. However, in dryland areas, this is negatively affected by various abiotic stresses, such as drought and salinity. The field screening of 10 improved genetic lines of pear millet originating from African dryland areas was conducted based on a set of agrobiological traits (i.e., germination rate, plant density, plant maturity rate, forage, and grain yields) in order to understand plant growth and its yield potential responses under saline environments. Our findings demonstrated that genotype had a significant impact on the accumulation of green biomass (64.4% based on two-way ANOVA), while salinity caused reduction in grain yield value. HHVBC Tall and IP 19586 were selected as the best-performing and high-yielding genotypes. HHVBC Tall is a dual purpose (i.e., forage and grain) line which produced high grain yields on marginal lands, with soil salinization up to electrical conductivity (EC) 6–8 dS m−1 (approximately 60–80 mM NaCl). Meanwhile, IP 19586, grown under similar conditions, showed a rapid accumulation of green biomass with a significant decrease in grain yield. Both lines were tolerant to drought and sensitive to high salinity (above 200 mM NaCl). The threshold salinity of HHVBC Tall calculated at the seedling stage was lower than that of IP 19586. Seedling viability of these lines was affected by oxidative stress and membrane peroxidation, and they had decreased chlorophyll and carotenoid biosynthesis. This study demonstrated that ionic stress is more detrimental for the accumulation of green and dry biomass, in combination with increasing the proline and malonic dialdehyde (MDA) contents of both best-performing pearl millet lines, as compared with osmotic stress