Tajik experts believe that the main culprit of desertification is irrational economical activities.
Among the countries of the region, Tajikistan is considered the most vulnerable to desertification. The republic suffering not only from rising temperatures and droughts but also from the consequences of natural disasters.
However, according to the conclusions of experts, which are reflected in the annual reports of the Committee for Environmental Protection, and in numerous international environmental organizations and local NGOs, it’s not only the fault of the climate but the irrational use of land and water resources.
The problem of desertification or soil degradation in Tajikistan has existed since the first years of independence. Almost all agricultural land of the republic is subject to degradation, and gross blunders in land use aggravate the process of desertification.
Why is the land degenerating?
If we look at the history of the issue, in the mid-90s, massive privatization of collective and state farms took place in Tajikistan, and more than 75 thousand hectares of arable land were distributed among the rural population so that it could provide itself with food. In place of the reorganized collective farms, numerous dekhkan farms (DF) appeared.
When distributing collective farmland, the most important things were forgotten. The entire water supply system – hydro-technical constructions, pumping stations, irrigation canals – remained ownerless. Soon they all fell into disrepair, the canals were filled with litters, pipes and trays disappeared, the pumping stations were partially plundered, and the surviving part was rusted and worn out completely. As a result, most of the irrigated fields turned into dryland – lands left without irrigation due to the fact that outdated pumping stations stopped supplying water.
For many years, the main canals and mudflows were not cleared, their banks were not strengthened, the water began to wash away the fertile layer of land. The process of degradation of irrigated fields became widespread and lasted until about 2015 when the country began to implement the state program to return degraded lands to agricultural use.
In Tajikistan, rainfed lands and pastures are the most prone to desertification. According to the National Program of Action to Combat Desertification, due to erosion, soil washout is from 27 to 372 tons per hectare, depending on the relief.
“This is a very large figure,” says Kurbonali Partoev, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences. “Pastures and rainfed lands are losing their grass cover and degrading, if not taken measures, they can turn into lifeless deserts.”
According to statistics, in the republic in all categories of farms in 2020, the number of great cattle amounted to more than 2.5 million, and the total head of small-size livestock – about 6 million. In total, Tajikistan has about 4 million hectares of pastures, which is not enough for grazing all animals.
According to Partoev, the number of herds, which graze on pastures is above measure, leading to the destruction of meadows and the formation of deserts.
Scientists of the Institute of Botany, Plant Physiology, and Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan recommend grazing livestock in one place only once every 3-4 years. Otherwise, the vegetation cover will disappear, the lithogenic base of the soil will be destroyed.
Director of the NGO “Little Earth” Timur Idrisov points to another cause of desertification – the massive tree logging.
“A hundred years ago, the forested areas in Tajikistan were 25 percent of the total country’s area. Today it has decreased to three percent,” the ecologist notes.
The journalist Sayfiddin Sunnati, the author of a number of articles on agricultural ecology, notes that the soil moisture is lower on the slopes where the forests are cut down. The roots of the trees firm the soil and prevent erosion. To save lands from imminent desertification, a national project like China’s Green Wall is needed, under the scope of which the planting of trees in the Gobi Desert is going on, he says. By 2050, they plan to turn it into a forest.
Farmer Akram Abdusamatov, who is engaged in rainfed agriculture, says that in the 90s and early 2000s, hawthorns were massively cut down in the foothill range.
“There was a whole forest around my field, now they are gone. As a result, large scary ravines appear in deforested areas. The entire landscape has been cut, all the fertile soil has been washed away,” he says.
What are the consequences of desertification?
Ecologist Akram Kurbanov, speaking about the environmental consequences of desertification, noted that it can lead to the destruction of vegetation cover, the expansion of sand-covered areas, and the deterioration of human health. According to him, the desertification process has already strongly affected the territory of southern Tajikistan, where forests are almost completely destroyed and large wild animals have disappeared. They have survived only in specially protected areas.
“The forests of turanga (turanga is a type of poplar adapted to the conditions of hot and arid climate) in the Vakhsh valley protected us from sand and dust storms from Afghanistan, now the storm freely reaches Dushanbe,” notes the ecologist.
The ecologist paid special attention to the fact that the peculiarity of turanga is that it can neither be cut nor grafted.
Desertification has a negative impact on the economy, as it covers irrigated land of cotton fields, winter pastures, and forest areas. Experts estimate that each hectare of lost land could bring at least $1,000 in profit.
How to prevent a catastrophe
At the moment, with the strengthening control over land use and with the help of projects by international organizations, it has been possible to slow down the rate of degradation and return abandoned land to agricultural use.
Kholmurod Rakhmon, director of the Agency for Land Reclamation and Irrigation, said at a summer press conference that at least US $750 million would be needed to restore the entire irrigation system in Tajikistan. Six land reclamation and irrigation investment projects worth a total of the US $165.4 million are currently in operation.
Tajik State Committee on Land Management and Geodesy chairman Orif Hojazoda said that by 2023 all abandoned land, more than 25,000 ha in total, will be turned back into use.
However, the problem can’t be solved through watering and the improvement of land reclamation alone. The matter is climate change, which requires land users to take a completely different approach than before. Now it is necessary to switch to growing crops under coverage, using greenhouses and films, to switch to drip irrigation, and the government should establish the selection of plant varieties adapted to new conditions. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Tajikistan today provides itself with agricultural seeds for only 20-25% of its needs.
Experts agree that if temperature rise is inevitable and many changes in our climate have become irreversible, no one is stopping us from saving our fields from degradation and turning into a desert through reforestation and other measures.
This material was prepared within the framework of the IWPR project “Amplify, Verify, Engage: Information for Democratisation and Good Governance in Eurasia”, funded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, and the mentoring program of the “Development of New Media and Digital Journalism in Central Asia” project, implemented by the Institute for War Reporting and Peace (IWPR) with the support of the UK Government. The content of this publication does not reflect the official views of IWPR, the Norwegian Foreign Office, or the UK Government.