Uzbekistan: Food Shortages on Horizon, Study Says

Climate change, a rapidly growing population, poor irrigation practices. For Uzbekistan, all these add up to a worrying future scenario on the food security front, according to a new study by Tashkent’s Centre for Economic Research. From a report on the study, commissioned with support from the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, on the UzNews.net website:

“Water resources are being depleted not only by global warming, but also by the inefficient irrigation systems being used by Uzbekistan’s agricultural producers,” said Ildus Kamilov, senior research coordinator on the project.

Kamilov claims that around half the water that could be used for irrigation is lost, and that channels and pumping stations need to be repaired to reduce those losses.

“A significant proportion of cultivated land in Uzbekistan is irrigated,” Kamilov said. But research has shown that 70% of Uzbekistan’s land is not suitable for agricultural production, either because the land is desert, steppe, or mountainous or soil salinity is too high.”

Soil salinity has degraded the fertility of the land in many regions, particularly Karakalpakstan, Jizak, Navoi, Khorzm, Bukhara, Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya, scientists noted.

“50.2% of all irrigated land is vulnerable to salinity – and 7.3% has been found to be heavily salinized,” Kamilov confirmed.

Scientists who have been taking part in the project stress that these undesirable physical developments are happening against a backdrop of rapid population growth in Uzbekistan, which is outstripping the growth in land area being irrigated. This has a significant impact on the country’s agricultural production and, consequently, on the welfare of its citizens, they say.

A UNDP report on food supply and security in Uzbekistan can be found here.