Learning Together
In 2005, the Asian Development Bank began
funding a project called "Enabling communities in the Aral Sea
basin to combat land and water resources degradation through
creation of 'bright spots.'" These bright spots are
areas where land degradation and low productivity have been
successfully reversed through soil remediation technologies and
best practices. This project is implemented by the International
Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Center for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and International
Center for Biosaline Agriculture, in partnership with national
agricultural research and extension systems (NARES). Project
activities, which cover Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan,
also aim to bring together technological innovations tested in
controlled environments and methods of sharing knowledge with
farmers' participation.
Conditions for crop production in Central Asia have deteriorated
as irrigated land has become affected by high salinity and rising
water tables, leading to crop losses exceeding 30%. In Central
Asia, 47.5% of the irrigated land is salinated, ranging from 95.9%
in Turkmenistan to 11.5% in Kyrgyzstan. Declining agricultural
productivity associated with salinization and elevated water tables
has contributed to endemic poverty in rural farm communities.
The project objective is to address poverty, improve household
food security and enhance environmental security by developing,
promoting and adopting strategies that improve the productivity of
existing irrigated farming systems in Central Asia.Project
activities include identifying local innovative farming practices
that help enhance agricultural productivity on degraded lands,
selecting salt-tolerant crop and forage species, and evaluating a
range of technologies for managing salinity, an example of which is
using licorice plants to rehabilitate abandoned saline lands.
Since 2005, the project has identified more than 38 innovative
local practices as bright spots, tested 12 technologies in the
field and conducted five regional training courses. The creation of
"learning alliances" through the project aims to
facilitate the vital learning and sharing of knowledge necessary
for developing and out-scaling bright-spot practices.
Says Avezov Tursunboy, leader of the Farmers' Learning
Alliance on Galaba Farm: "The project approached us with the
idea of creating a learning alliance for involving major
stakeholders to ensure full participation towards achieving our
goal to reverse the degradation of lands and improve livelihoods in
our region. A 1-day roundtable meeting was organized to discuss the
issues, opportunities and prospect of the licorice establishment
trial. Now, with a set structure and guidance from IWMI, we are
able to effectively operate our newly born learning
alliance."
On 28-29 August 2006, IWMI and its local and international
partners conducted a knowledge fair called An Exhibition of
Technologies for Remediation of Saline Soils, along with the Forum
on Sustainable Agricultural Development, in Mirzachul, a region of
high soil salinity in Uzbekistan. The main goal was to demonstrate
technologies that would help improve the productivity of land and
water in saline areas. The exhibition was attended by 400 farmers
and 200 researchers. Among the exhibitors were ten NARES centers
and seven international centers, including five Centers supported
by the CGIAR. It was the first instance in Central Asia of a
knowledge fair in which researchers directly communicated their
results to farmers.
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