Water saving and economic impacts of land leveling: the case study of cotton production in Tajikistan

Abstract

Water conservation is essential to prevent salinity and land degradation in Central Asia. Therefore, field-testing and evaluation of water conservation methods, i.e. laser land leveling in new farming systems of Central Asia is important task. This in mind the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and its regional partner on IWRM FV (IWRM FV project -Integrated Water Resources Management in Ferghana Valley project is funded by Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and conducted jointly with IWMI and Scientific Information Center of Interstate Coordination Water Commission (SIC ICWC) in the Ferghana Valley of Central Asia) project SIC ICWC have conducted 3 year study of impacts of the Laser leveled land leveling on water use, productivity and crop yields in northern Tajikistan. The major research question was laser land leveling an effective water saving tool in the new context of land use and ownership on smaller private plots. Can farmers afford the costs of laser land leveling and how economically viable is it? These research questions were studied in 5 ha laser leveled and neighboring non-leveled (control) fields for 2004-2006. The results showed that laser land leveling can reduce the water application rate in 2004 by 593 M 3 /ha, in 2005 by 1509 M 3 /ha and in 2006 by 333 M 3 /ha in comparison with the unleveled field, located in the similar agro-ecological conditions. The deep percolation was 8% lower and run off 24% less than in non-leveled field. The average annual net income from the laser field was 22% higher than that from the control field. The gross margin from the laser-leveled field were 16. 88 and 171% higher compared to that from the control field for 2004, 2005 and 2006, and on average was 92% higher. In spite of these positive results, there are hindrances on wide application of laser land leveling in Tajikistan. These are absence of initial capital of farmers and scattered land location.

Hydro-Priming of Seed Improves the Water Use Efficiency, Grain Yield and Net Economic Return of Wheat under Different Moisture Regimes

“…Water productivity and economic analysis combines physical accounting of water with yield or economic output to assess how much value is being obtained from the use of water (Abdullaev et al, 2007). For this analysis, physical water productivity was calculated by the following equation:…”

Pros and Cons of Adopting Water-Wise Approaches in the Lower Reaches of the Amu Darya: A Socio-Economic View

“…Laser-guided land leveling allows reducing considerable amounts of water use because of a more uniform water distribution over the field [27]. This is due to the effective smoothening of the soil surface, which in turn reduces not only the irrigation duration and amounts of water applied to a field but also the requested labor.…”

“…This is due to the effective smoothening of the soil surface, which in turn reduces not only the irrigation duration and amounts of water applied to a field but also the requested labor. In addition, this method has several benefits as it causes a more uniform germination and growth of crops, and a reduction in fertilizer, chemicals and fuel use [27]. Often cited shortcomings are the high initial investment cost and the need for skilled laborers that can correctly set/adjust laser settings and operate the tractors [27].…”

Evaluation of the laser leveled land leveling technology on crop yield and water use productivity in Western Uttar Pradesh

“…Water productivity analysis combines physical accounting of water with yield or economic output to assess how much value is being obtained from the use of water (Molden et al, 2003;Abdullaev et al, 2007;Bouman et al, 2008). For this analysis, physical water productivity was calculated by:…”

“…The scarcity of canal water supplies coupled with unfit ground water has compelled the farmers to utilize available water resources more wisely and efficiently. Under these circumstances, PLL can help the farmers to utilize the scarce land and water resource more effectively and efficiently towards increased crop production (Abdullaev et al, 2007). It was estimated that around 25 to 30% of irrigation water could be saved through this technique without having any adverse affect on the crop yield (Bhatt and Sharma, 2009).…”