Kahramon Jumaboev

Adoption of integrated water resources management principles and its impacts: lessons from Ferghana Valley

The Ferghana Valley Project, initiated in 2001, has promoted institutional change in the post-Soviet irrigation sector in this part of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This paper presents the short-term (5-year) impacts of integrated water resources management project activities focused on water user participation in the South Ferghana Canal of Ferghana Province in Uzbekistan on irrigation water delivery and crop productivity. Irrigation performance assessment indicators indicate only slight improvements in water delivery and crop yields. Although water was important, larger changes in the agricultural sector of Uzbekistan dominated outcomes in this relatively short time span.

Yield and water use efficiency of potato varieties under different soil-moisture stress conditions in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia

ABSTRACT Deficit irrigation could be considered as one potential option to improve water productivity and obtain some level of assured income under water scarcity and drought conditions in Central Asia. This article investigates water productivity and economic returns to two varieties of potato crop under four different soil-moisture regimes in Uzbekistan. Results suggest that deficit irrigation may not be considered as an option to improve water productivity of potato crop, particularly when the deficit is high. However, deficit irrigation options could be still considered as a viable option to maintain food security and some assured farm income even under extreme drought conditions.