Ashgabat, 28 October 2019: In 2019, twenty proposals to improve the agro-infrastructure of the local communities of Lebap and Dashoguz velayats will be financed under the joint project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF). More than 560 thousand manat will be allocated for small grants in the two pilot regions of “Supporting Climate resilient livelihoods in Agricultural Communities in the Drought-prone areas of Turkmenistan” project.

“We have made a call and provided free consultations to the communities on how to fill in the grant proposals. To select the most promising ideas, a comprehensive analysis of the proposals was carried out. Social factors and the environmental and economic component were considered,” explains Amangul Ovezbediyeva, UNDP/GEF project manager.

As a result, laser land leveling, construction of water control facilities and an aqueduct, repair of sardobes, purchase and installation of deep pumps, equipment repair, and cleaning of collector-drainage systems are planned in the pilot sections of the two regions by the end of 2020. The grants were also allocated to increase alternative sources of income such as establishment of two greenhouses, construction of a vegetable warehouse, purchase of equipment for application of the No-till farming and production of bio-humus.

In the northern region, work will be carried out at the Karakum livestock farm and the Yagtylyk Daikhan association, and in Lebap - at the Vatan and Parakhat Daikhan associations. It is planned to construct 38 hydraulic structures of local importance and carry out laser land leveling on more than 300 hectares of land. The project also offers free online consultations to the holders of the grants on various aspects of agricultural production with the involvement of foreign specialists.

Together with Dashoguz State Agriculture Institute, and Turkmen Agrarian University designed guidelines for assessing the reclamation state of irrigated lands, optimizing the mineral nutrition of cotton, and drawing up on-farm water use plans to assess the impact of the conducted measures. These guidelines adopted by the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan will be very soon distributed among all educational institutions and other interested parties.