Improving irrigation and water management has always been driven by the transfer of ideas, experience and expertise between partner organizations. Exchanging views and methodologies can be a fertile source of innovation and partnerships.
This week, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in Tajikistan met to identify ways to strengthen and expand cooperation opportunities aimed at improving water productivity and irrigation.
FAO Country Office in Tajikistan says that during the meeting the leadership and project managers of both organizations highlighted new and innovative approaches such as the AquaCrop application (developed by FAO), Replogle flumes first time established in Vahdat Township within one of the technical cooperation programs of FAO – relevantly low cost flow measurement structures for most open channel applications in irrigation canals, it has a WinFlume software which designs the weir and provides accurate measuring rod, and water measurement devices with a data transformer that is expected to be installed very soon in Isfara district of Sughd province within FAO Peace Building Fund (PBF) project.
In the coming months, FAO is planning to hold a national workshop on the application of the AquaCrop tool http://www.fao.org/aquacrop to improve the water productivity and irrigation for young local water engineers and soils science specialists.
“Such initiatives are very vital, they successfully combine distribution of practical and theoretical knowledge among key personnel of partner and irrigation organizations and policy specialists,” said Oleg Guchgeldiyev, FAO Representative in Tajikistan. “To achieve efficient and integrated use of water resources we need to combine efforts, experience and knowledge.”
FAO is dedicated to collaborating with and supporting agricultural producers, particularly in their efforts to improve irrigation and water productivity. This is accomplished through coordinated efforts including education, technical and financial assistance.
Helvetas has been active in Tajikistan since 2009, seeking to develop markets so farmers can improve their living standards. It puts small-scale fruit and vegetable growers in touch with local processing plants and trains them in ways of improving farming methods. Specifically, they learn to forgo the use of costly chemical fertilizers that pollute the environment, thereby improving the quality of their produce, which can then fetch higher market prices. Their income security is also shored up by firm supply contracts.
