Integrated farming on irrigated lands for adaptation to changing climate (Tadjikistan)

Irrigated agriculture faces challenges from climate change impact and growing competition for irrigation water. The approach to get "more crop per drop" reduces the adverse effect of these impacts and improves the income of farmers.

Irrigated cultivation of onion, potatoes, corn and other crops is hampered by poor agricultural practice and these challenges are increasingly exacerbated by the impact of climate change. The already visible trends and predictions show higher levels of aridity, higher temperatures during the vegetation season, reduced overall precipitation in catchment areas, more irregular rainfall patterns, reduced snow packs and accelerated snow melt as well as the loss of glaciers as buffers of water flow. These factors all cause a reduction of available irrigation water, while higher temperatures and expansion of irrigated agriculture – partly also caused by increasing aridity and reduced feasibility of rain-fed farming – lead to higher irrigation water demand. At the same time irrigated agriculture has low irrigation water use efficiency in terms of yield, crop quality and created income.

Other problems in irrigated cultivation of onion, potatoes, corn and other crops are caused by poor agricultural practice. Crop varieties producing high yield of good quality under the local conditions are not available for local farmers. Insufficient knowledge about the use of agrochemicals, difficult access to these and financial shortages experienced by farmers during the time of planting and growing of crops cause the inadequate application of fertilizer and pesticides and cause crop losses and quality issues. Only wealthy farmers are able to purchase timely sufficient amounts of agricultural inputs. Most farmers apply insufficient amounts and inadequate combinations of fertilizers, thus causing a declining soil fertility, which affects quantity and quality of harvested crops. Unreliable harvest amounts and inconsistent quality reduce the marketability of the agricultural products and cause low income levels of farmers, again affecting their ability to work their lands effectively and sustainable. Additionally, a policy of “one village – one product” has contributed to higher risks in cases of crop failure or production exceeding demand.

The approach aims at reducing these risks and obstacles in an integrated way under consideration of ongoing trends and predicted impacts of climate change. The approach therefore combines several elements through an agricultural extension service:
•Agricultural extension service providing tailored assistance to the farmers;
•Provision of agricultural inputs through the extension services to ease the application of technical advice and reduce transaction costs for the farmers;
•Packages of agricultural inputs include seeds/planting material, fertilizers and pesticides as well as growth regulator with the instruction for their correct use;
•The agricultural extension service provides access to crop varieties, which are adapted to the local site conditions and produce reliable high yields of best quality;
•Agricultural inputs are provided to farmers on a part loan basis by the extension service: farmers pay 50% of the costs of the package when purchasing, the remaining 50% are paid after harvest, with a zero interest rate (the extension service buys the inputs at bulk price and sells them to the farmers at retail price, which is 115% of the bulk price);
•Technological assistance includes the use of seeding machines and cultivation technology like the transplanting of pre-grown seedlings of onion or rice;
•Farmers are advised to diversify their crops in accordance to the local site conditions and market demand.

Additionally the project has assisted with testing and demonstration of different irrigation technologies, e.g. drip irrigation in various crops and sprinkler irrigation in potato cultivation. The result of these trials are used by the agricultural extension service to advise farmers under what site conditions, costs of irrigation water and other inputs, expected yields and predicted market demand the application of such costly irrigation techniques can be economically reasonable.