ADB project aims to cut poverty by rehabilitating key irrigation system

By approving a US $72 million loan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is helping Uzbekistan to rehabilitate a key irrigation system in the country's southern province of Surkhandarya that services five districts, where the area's 400,000 residents depend primarily on irrigated agriculture. "Maintenance and reconstruction of existing irrigation systems defines the fate of the country's agriculture, where 97 percent of total agricultural income comes from irrigated land," an official from the Uzbek Ministry for Agriculture and Water Management told IRIN in the capital Tashkent, adding that a total of 22 million hectares of land were being used for agricultural purposes in the country, with only 4.2 million of them being irrigated. The ADB project will help to rehabilitate the nearly 30-year-old Soviet built Amu Zang irrigation system that comprises a series of pumping stations from the Amudarya River servicing about 96,800 hectares, where poverty levels of more than 30 percent are higher than the national average. Lack of maintenance and ageing has reduced the reliability and capacity of the pumping system, leading to increased inefficiency and high levels of sediment in the pumped water. Due to the state of the canals, there is a high rate of seepage, with only about half of the water reaching farmers' fields. The sediment is also damaging the equipment, resulting in increased operational and maintenance costs. "Unless there is a major overhaul, key parts of the irrigation system could collapse in as little as five years, with devastating effects on the local population who are directly dependent on it," said an ADB official, noting that the project would also help to break a cycle of poverty in which the deteriorating performance of the irrigation system was leading to falling production and incomes, and increasing land degradation. According to an agricultural expert, Uzbekistan used to be one of the world's leading cotton producers and exporters, but over the past two or three years harvests have diminished. Moreover, due to old Soviet style management and slow reforms in the agricultural sector, collective farm workers are not paid for months, sometimes for years, instead being given oil, grain or vegetables. Gulbahor, 42, a small family farm owner in Angor district, 40 km from Termez, the administrative centre of Surkhandarya province, says that many people rely on their own small piece of land to generate income. "Moreover, our business solely depends on water in the Amu Zang canal. We have to use pumps for watering our crops when water levels are low in the canal, which is very costly," she said, while cultivating cabbages with her son. Soon dozens of Mercedes trucks will be transporting hundreds of tons of fruits and vegetables produced in villagers' backyards to Russia, leaving them enough cash for the next season. Another problem is high salinity, affecting harvests. Abdurahmon, a collective farm worker from Sherobod district, complains that they have been using salty drainage water for several years because of the collapsed irrigation system that led to a decrease in their incomes. "The land is already degraded. It will take several years to rehabilitate the soil", he told IRIN in Sherobod. For farmers like Abdurahmon, the ADB project would be of great assistance, as besides physical repair works it aims to improve irrigation management and targets private farm system development in the districts involved in the project. The repair works, which will target pumps, motors and other equipment in the three main pumping stations, improvement of maintenance facilities, and rehabilitation of selected sections of the main irrigation and drainage network, are expected to reverse the decline and boost production of cotton from an average of 2.8 to 3.4 metric tons per hectare and wheat from 3.1 to 3.9 tons per hectare. According to ADB, to ensure sustainability, the project will also provide training in operations and maintenance for the water management agencies, install water resource management systems, and support the establishment of water users associations. At present, water users have virtually no participation in managing irrigation and drainage systems. Improved irrigation and drainage will be demonstrated in selected farms of the five districts as pilot areas to demonstrate on-farm water use efficiencies. Within the project, training will be provided in new technologies on water saving, soil improvement, and crop diversification. ADB also approved a further $26 million loan to increase the productivity of grain crops in several provinces of the country in December 2003, raising its current loan portfolio to $745 million and becoming a major investor among international financial institutions operating in Uzbekistan.