Original blog published by ICARDA on December 21, 2023
The Aral Sea has been plagued by severe and ongoing environmental degradation. The excessive diversion of water for cotton farming has caused the sea to retract dramatically, leading to ecological imbalances and the emergence of salt flats, desertification, and sand-dust storms.
In response, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is supporting decision-making processes for improved water productivity through sustainable land management. This work, carried out through the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, provides decision-makers with an intuitive decision support system that offers effective and proven land management options based on field data. The goal is to identify win-win solutions and trade-offs among selected interventions while considering economic profitability across all water–energy–food–environment sectors, to contribute to a more resilient and revitalized Aral Sea basin.
This work was carried out under the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, which is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund contributors: www.cgiar.org/funders
Header image: Boats in the desert around Moynaq, Aral Sea, Uzbekistan. Photo by Daniel Prudek/Shutterstock.
