Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Land degradation is a major challenge for agricultural and rural development in Uzbekistan. Our research findings indicate that the costs of land degradation in Uzbekistan are substantial; reaching about 0.85 billion USD annually resulting from the loss of valuable land ecosystem services due to land use and land cover changes alone between 2001 and 2009. On the other hand, economic simulations also show that the returns from actions to address land degradation can be four times higher their costs over a 30-year planning horizon, i.e. every dollar invested into land rehabilitation can yield 4 dollars of returns over this period. The

Application of the Concept of Land Degradation Neutrality for Remote Monitoring of Agricultural Sustainability of Irrigated Areas in Uzbekistan

“…Results obtained demonstrate that selecting the first five years as the baseline period is reflected on the graphs, the earliest point on which is characterized by the proportion of stable and improved territories being close to 100%, which creates a false illusion that only a deterioration in indicators is further noted. Moreover, conclusions on the use of similar starting periods for comparison can be found in [ 17 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. These conclusions do not correspond to the state statistics data [ 35 ] obtained via traditional field-based methods, which indicate certain positive trends in the state of land, productivity growth, and improvement in irrigation facilities that resulted from present state policy and significant investments in land reclamation measures and increasing land fertility.…”

“…The moving average method involves a transition from the initial values Xn of the time series to the average values Xav calculated on their basis, which were recorded over a certain time interval (n) [ 32 ]. This method helps us to demonstrate the main trends in the form of time series in a smoother form [ 38 ].…”

Small Farms: Changing Structures and Roles in Economic Development

“…On the other hand, Kirui (2015) finds that farmers with larger plot sizes were more likely to adopt sustainable land management practices in Tanzania and Malawi. Similarly, Sow et al (2015) and Aw-Hassan et al (2015) find that larger farm sizes were associated with higher adoption of soil conserving practices in Senegal and Uzbekistan, respectively. …”

Desertification

“…Increased profits both motivate and enable them to invest more in SLM. Higher access to input, output and credit markets was consistently found as a major factor in the adoption of SLM practices in a wide number of settings across the drylands (medium confidence) (Aw-Hassan et al 2016;Gebreselassie et al 2016;Mythili and Goedecke 2016;Nkonya and Anderson 2015;Sow et al 2016). Lack of access to credit limits adjustments and agricultural responses to the impacts of desertification under changing climate, with long-term consequences for the livelihoods and incomes, as was shown during the North American Dust Bowl of the 1930s (Hornbeck 2012).…”

“…These include: improved land levelling and more efficient irrigation methods such as drip, sprinkler and alternate furrow irrigation (Gupta et al 2009); conservation agriculture practices, including no-till methods and maintenance of crop residues as mulch in the rainfed and irrigated areas (Kienzler et al 2012;Pulatov et al 2012); rotational grazing; institutional arrangements for pooling livestock for long-distance mobile grazing; reconstruction of watering infrastructure along the livestock migratory routes (Han et al 2016;Mirzabaev et al 2016); afforesting degraded marginal lands (Djanibekov and Khamzina 2016;Khamzina et al 2009;Khamzina et al 2016); integrated water resource management (Dukhovny et al 2013;Kazbekov et al 2009); and planting salt -and drought-tolerant halophytic plants as windbreaks in sandy rangelands (Akinshina et al 2016;Qadir et al 2009;Toderich et al 2009;Toderich et al 2008), and potentially the dried seabed of the former Aral Sea (Breckle 2013). The adoption of enabling policies, such as those discussed in Section 3.6.3, can facilitate the adoption of these sustainable land and water management practices in Central Asia (high confidence) (Aw-Hassan et al 2016;Bekchanov et al 2016;Bobojonov et al 2013;Djanibekov et al 2016;Hamidov et al 2016;Mirzabaev et al 2016).…”