Turkmen Farmers Struggle With Polluted Land

Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has launched the agricultural year with a call for greater efficiency, but NBCentralAsia commentators say farmers will find it hard to overcome problems such as the heavy salt content in the soil.

At an April 30 cabinet meeting, the president demanded “timely agricultural and technical measures that will have a direct bearing on the size and quality of the coming harvest”.

Sowing is coming to an end in Turkmenistan, and the authorities have set targets of over one million tons of cotton and at least three million tons of wheat for 2010. Commentators say these targets are unlikely to be achieved.

One analyst in the capital Ashgabat believes Berdymuhammedov’s remarks reflect an awareness of high soil salinity coupled with the poor state of the country’s irrigation canals.

“This is the third time the president has alluded to this recently, but nothing is changing,” he said.

A source in Ashgabat said unpublished information collated by the water resources ministry suggested that nearly a third of all arable land is in poor shape.

Along with limited water resources and poor plant selection, soil salinity contributes to the under-performance of crops every year. When harvest season comes around, it becomes apparent that the targets are not going to be met despite farmers’ best efforts.

As one farmer put it, “The soil has gone bad, so it cannot produce the kind of harvest that they’re counting on in their plans.”

Data submitted by Turkmenistan for the 2004 Regional Environmental Action Plan showed that 65 per cent of arable land had a high saline content. If land with somewhat lower salinity levels were included, it would bring the figure closer to 80 per cent.

One of the report’s authors, who requested anonymity, said salinity was responsible for an annual shortfall of at least 300,000 tons of cotton.

“The damage being done to the country’s agriculture and economy shows there’s a need for more careful study of soil salinisation,” he added.

High levels of salt over a number of years can do irreparable harm to soil quality, and ultimately render it unusable.

Turkmenistan’s salinisation problem began being discussed halfway through the 20^th century, when increased pressure on Central Asia’s two main rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. led to falling water levels and a shortage of irrigation. The problem was compounded by a failure to properly maintain water management systems, which gradually fell into disrepair.

Under Berdymuhammedov, the authorities launched an ambitious new scheme to trap and recyle drainage water in a giant reservoir called Altyn Asyr or Golden Age. The first phase of the costly reservoir project was completed last July.  

Environmentalists and other experts have criticised the plan, which they believe will merely waterlog the desert sands of northeastern Turkmenistan and harm the environment. One local environmental scientist said it would have been far better to spend the massive funds allocated for the Altyn Asyr project on fixing the existing irrigation network.

An agriculture expert in the eastern Lebap region said the canals had not been cleared once in the last 30 years. As a result, he said, “The water doesn’t flow along the canals, and that’s why all the surrounding land has become saline.”

An agriculture ministry expert said soil salinisation and degradation and was compounded by erosion caused by wind and water. Meanwhile, there was no systematic approach to addressing the problem, and no state programme to monitor soil quality.

“All these factors will lead to a point in the near future where the potential for agricultural production in Turkmenistan will be exhausted,” he said.

This article was produced as part of IWPR’s News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.