Afghanistan Revival: Irrigation on the right and left banks of Amu Darya

In Afghanistan and Central Asia, more than ten million residents and refugees have been suffering from desperate famine, drought, and poverty. Moreover, mono-cultural economy in Central Asian republics forced by the former Soviet Union has made it difficult to transfer their old economy to a modern market economy. It is important to amend their situation in terms of not only the domestic view, but also of the interstate view. We propose here a critical long-term resolution to overcome this tragedy. Agricultural development using Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI) for such crops as rice on the Left Bank of Amu Darya (Afghanistan) is what we suggest. It is well known that the former Soviet Union and Central Asian Republics have irrigated the Right Bank of Amu Darya (Uzbekistan) since the end of the 19th century. On the contrary, the Left Bank of Amu Darya has been ignored although it also possesses an almost equivalent edaphic and agricultural potential compared to the Right Bank. The purpose of our proposal is to build permanent food production systems on these forgotten dry lands in order to feed Afghan people who are suffering from a desperate famine, and to provide local people with jobs. There are some issues to make the proposal feasible in terms of engineering technology, political economics, international legitimacy and international law. The main objectives of this volume are to address the issues related to international legitimacy, and to propose practical resolutions. Afghanistan needs to be integrated within the framework of Amu Darya Basin water resources agreement to reduce the likelihood of inter-state water conflicts and to provide a stable and reasonable political climate for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. The international community may have to donate, besides the above mentioned Afghanistan Reconstruction Funds, more than $4.5 billion, to contribute to the Central Asian republics. This is mostly because the population of the Aral Sea Basin countries is continuously growing, and consequently the demand for fresh drinking water and local food production are gradually increasing. There is also need for providing employment opportunities in the areas of higher population growth rate. Under condition of depleting water resources, non-conventional water sources for irrigation should be explored. Sustainable management of such water resources with sustainable development of irrigated structures will contribute to agricultural yield stabilizing, that is a primary concern in all riparian countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan). Without the knowledge and experience of former Soviet republics on irrigated farming production under the arid climate, and without the cooperative improvement in agriculture and water resources usage with those republics, Afghanistan can never achieve effective reconstruction. Today, many existing situations in the Amu Darya Basin ecosystems are too complex and diverse for a single national strategy to prescribe in detail how they should be corrected, managed or sustained. Scientifically sound strategies are needed because these riparian countries often face a wide range of common dynamic problems that cannot be easily resolved with current legislation, institutions, governments, existing dispute resolution procedures, or even present scientific knowledge. There is an apparent need to reconsider the definition of water and land resources use that result in desertification (commonly land degradation induced by a combination of human actions and climatic extremes.) We also have to make sure of who is responsible for. In the first section of this volume, information about Amu Darya and development of irrigation shall be provided. Information about rice irrigation production is also provided in this section. The second section describes the former agricultural situation in Afghanistan. We can understand the types of crops that Afghan people harvested and how they firmed before the Soviet invasion in 1979. The third section describes the historical relationship between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union in regards to the usage of the Amu Darya's water resources. The current framework for Amu Darya water resources is presented in the fourth section. This section lists the organizations that managed Amu Darya water usage after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The fifth section answers why the interstate coordination for Amu Darya water resources is required. The sixth section concludes our proposal

Adaptations of Plants to Metal/Salt Contained Environments: Glandlar Structure and Salt Excretion

A quantitative assessment was made of metal contamination levels and salinization of Kyzylkum Deserts territories and an analysis of plant/soil samples were investigated in relation to the natural cellular mechanism of plant adaptations to environmental agro-industrial pollutants. Preliminary results provide strong evidence that tailing sands and wet-marsh lands polluted with cadmium, copper, iron, nickel, manganese, chromium, strontium, lead, zinc, various toxic salts and organic pollutants are first colonized by plant species that develop strategies for avoidance and/or tolerance to toxic metals. Our analyses show that the native desert plants, grown on the metalliferous and/or salinized soils tend to accumulate the highest ions concentrations in epidermal and subepidermal tissues, as well as in water bearing parenchyma, including various glandular structures of bracts/bracteoles and perianth segments. A specific adaptive defending strategy by reproductive organs occurred between the vegetative and reproductive functional systems of the resistant plants that ensure them successful sexual reproduction and seed germination. In Chenopods like in some species of Poaceae, glandular structures are usually bicellular, comprising a basal and cap cell, and are referred to as salt glands, trichomes or microhairs. Salt secretion is considered as an adaptive strategy to regulate plant tissue ion concentration. We suggest that the different appearance of the glandular structures in some chenopods and graminous species of Kyzylkum flora is due to differences in their function connected both with accumulation of various ions and /or secretory process. The prismatic crystals secreted by epidermal salt glands and analyzed by X-ray absorption spectrometry contain primarily cations Na, K, Ca, and anions Cl, SO4, carbonate, although other ions such as Mg, Si, and Sr also were detected. Structurally, SEM methods also revealed a high diversity in the micromorphology of epicuticular wax (epicuticular secretion) and silicon deposits that was mostly peculiar for perennial Salsola and gramineous species. The natural plant-cellular mechanism of salt/metal tolerance observed in this study should permit the development and testing of more informed hypotheses regarding adaptations required for colonization and survival of plants, growing under extremely harsh arid and, simultaneously metaliferous/salinized environments. Phytoremediation technology is considered a potentially valuable technique for dealing with heavy metals, which are the most difficult pollutants to remove from soils

Middle asian arid and semi-arid rangelands with reference to other similar regions of the world

*INRA Documentation Montpellier (FRA) Diffusion du document : INRA Documentation Montpellier (FRA)International audienc

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

Water Quality, Cropping and Small Rumminants: Future Agriculture in Dry Areas of Uzbekistan

Water samples taken along Zerafshan River and its tributaries (canals and collectors) were analyzed by ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The dissolved solids in Zerafshan River water include major cations, major anions, trace elements, and radionuclides. The analysis demonstrated that water quality in the river and canals in the area of alluvial fan around Samarkand is significantly different than that in the lower reaches in Kyzylkum Desert. These differences are in the concentrations of almost all ions, dissolved metals and salinity. It is presumed that pollutants are released mostly to the lower part of Zerafshan River from numerous sources. Typical sources are municipal wastewater, manufacturing industries, mining, and rural irrigation and agricultural cultivation. IN the created environments there is need to carefully optimize the grain production and the meat production from small ruminants and to balance available natural resources for a sustainable future of agriculture in Uzbekistan. Research activities in this case are also to be focused on monitoring of water quality and effectively management of scares water resources in the arid/semiarid zones