Environmental research

During the last few years there has been a stable decrease of summer and winter precipitations in the region which led to a decrease of water-level of Talas River. Due to this, the volume of water in irrigation canals has decreased the last 10 years, leading to reduction of volumes of water available for irrigated agriculture. This has led to unsustainable methods of irrigated agriculture, leading to salinization and other forms of degradation. Because of infringement of methods of irrigated agriculture and bad irrigational system, the most part of the irrigation grounds are at salinization risk salted and degraded to different extent. Nowadays these degraded fields are used by local community members for unsystematic grazing which leads to further land degradation which have especially amplified recently because of climate change towards aridity. Project aim: To reduce climate change-driven soil degradation and salinization risks, promoting the sustainable development of Sady Shakirov settlement through the introduction of new elements of water and landing resources management that will increase the resilience to climate change risks. Project tasks: - The reduction of the basic loads caused by climate change on degraded lands through the development of adaptable management water and ground resources - The development of community capacity to implement climate resilient livelihood techniques for water and land management - The reduction of additional climate change drivers of land degradation - The raise of local population awareness about climate change risks Project results: - The project has introduced methods of early spring irrigation of the community member s lands to include the fallow lands into the farming operations. Growing of perennial feed crop of Lucerne on the fallow lands help to the community members of Sadu Shakirov village to develop sustainable cattle breeding and decrease their vulnerability to the climate change impacts. Apart from the adaptation benefits the project mitigates the degradation of the wastelands that were previously irrigated. - In 2009 the project has completed the activities in compliance with the approved work plan. The project has agreed with the Talas Water Systems Department on the releasing of the water into the reconstructed Sharuashlyk channel from Talas River in autumn and early spring. During these periods the water will be considered as environmental releases and will not be charged. - From September till March 2009 the project completed the repair works of the Sharuashlyk channel. The project implementers have cleared up over 7000 meters of the tray type channel run and fixed them where needed with banked earth. 104 meters of the channel were concreted to avoid leakages. Five canal locks were constructed. In general 12 km of the channel were repaired. - The land for the spring sowing of the Lucerne was prepared. The irrigation furrows were cleared ready for the early spring irrigation. The land (30 ha) was ploughed to ensure the storage of the soil moisture. Starting from 20 September 2009 until winter colds the water was released through the repaired channel 1,5 m /sec. from the main lo k 30 km away from the S. Shakirov village. During the autumn of 2009 over 100 ha of the fallow lands were irrigated. - In order to involve new community members into the project implementation three pipes with the shutters were cut in to the channel to take the water to their lands. Now the land owners use the water for cattle watering, but in the future they will be able to use these pipes for growing agricultural crops on their lands. - The reconstruction of the channel and spring irrigation method proved to be the most effective and easy method for the community to adapt to climate aridization through using the degraded lands and cattle breeding development.

Kazakhstan