Last Monday, on 13th of September 2010 the first meeting of our Steering Committee with a new membership took place. We remind you that a second new National Steering Committee (NSC) has been recently approved, which makes decisions on project approval. The only change has been made since the last approval – it is a candidate from UNDP. Khurshid Rustamov changed his place of work and currently UNDP is viewing for the new candidate for a member of the Steering Committee.

So, the new Committee gathered for the first time and we already have results. For the beginning, there was an introductory training seminar where the new NSC members got to know about how the GEF SGP is working and what are the criteria of projects’ consideration. At the end of the seminar, a real application which was proposed currently to the GEF SGP was taken as an example. It was an application on phyto-melioration in Karakalpakstan.

The discussions were long and persevering. Mirzahid Yuldashev, Representative of Farmers’ Association, couldn’t participate in the discussions as the application was submitted from Farmers’ Association in Karakalpakstan. A Representative from State Nature Protection was also absent at the meeting. Thus, only 7 people could participate in decision making, according to the GEF SGP regulations, the project is considered to be approved when not less than 7 people voted for it. That means the decision must be unanimous. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. There was a big discussion and to its end 4 people were “for” and 3 people were “against” or abstained from voting.

It was decided that National Coordinator must hold meetings with farmers of the pilot regions for finding out their preferences and their points of view on the project.

Next day National Coordinator (NC) went to Karakalpakstan to meet the local authorities and farmers. It was intended that NC should carry out questionnaire with random farmers. I should say it wasn’t possible. Just because of the lack of time. But the conversation with mayors of Kanlykol and Kegeyli districts was very productive. This is what happened.

The first meeting was held with the mayor of Kanlykol district – Ibragimov Tulubay Tursunbaevich. This region is a project territory of the big project of UNDP-GEF “Preservation of tugai forests and improvement of the systems of protected territories in Amudarya delta in Karakalpakstan”. We did not choose this district randomly. All good technologies introduced on the territory of the buffer zone of the future tugai biospheric reserve, will positively influence the people of this territory and will decrease the load on the protected biological resources. Currently, we also have a project in Kanlykol district on zero tillage.

We talked for more than 2 hours with mayor of Kanlykol district. The mayor examined the matter very thoroughly, asked in details about everything, made notes, proposals. In whole, it could be said, that the mayor provided us with very important additional information. For instance:

People from Karakalpakstan have been famous for their Lucerne from the old times. They had their own famous seedling farms during the Soviet Union. And Lucerne always was sowen only together with wheat. People from Karakalpakstan know well how to do it. It’s quite another matter when farmers have some habit or stereotype that if they sow Lucerne then it should be there for 4-5 years till it is fully degraded. The scheme “2 years of Lucerne and receiving of one more crop in spring” which is proposed by our project is very attractive and they could like it. On the 2nd year the Lucerne yield is maximum. On the 3rd year it is also good. In whole, the mayor was very interested in it and assured us that many farmers would agree to introduce this method.

Triticale+pea is also an attractive idea but it has one peculiarity. The matter is that generally sowing of the cotton is held in April. 15 May is a maximum late date for sowing cotton. And according to the plan of the project the green mass of triticale+pea must be harvested in the beginning of May. Maximum 10 days remain till the last date for sowing cotton. Basically, they have time and they can try. We always have late cotton or triticale+pea could be gathered earlier. In other words, it is an interesting choice but we should work very neatly in spring: root and plant residues must be ploughed right after gathering the green mass of legume-grass mixture and then cotton must be sown.

All in all, Mr. Ibragimov supported the idea and wanted to test it on the plot of land of minimum 15 ha. Unfortunately, we haven’t this amount of seeds yet.

Lucerne is very useful plant for the soil

It’s 300 km from Kanlikol and back, then we should visit Kegeyli, and we already were waited by the mayor of Kegeyli district – Polatboy Bazarbayevich Imatov. Mr. Imatov is acquainted for some time with the developers of the idea and with idea itself. Therefore, the conversation was held discussing the details. He knows this idea very well and supports it. Right there we talked with one young farmer who is ready for innovations and wants to test the new technology. The mayor also had his own proposals which could be definitely included into the project. For instance, try to sow Lucerne not for 2 years, as it is proposed in the project but 3 years and then we could sow cotton (for 2 years). It allows not to destroy significantly the wish of the farmers to use maximum of Lucerne and get maximum good results from combination Lucerne-wheat. Besides, the mayor proposed to try soy instead of Lucerne on a little test plot.

In other words, the idea was perceived very positively by the local authorities. Competent people, say that innovations are perceived by farmers carefully and if we just say: “Let’s try”, most of farmers will likely say “no”. Because people are afraid to replace their long-standing principles with something new. And if the project tries to work with the most active people, and we will help them, there will be a good chance that after 1-2 years these farmers will say that it is a good technology and will continue using it. And others will follow them.

It is a pity that we had no time to talk much with the farmers. But still, we have a very positive impression about perspectives of this method after the trip to that place. NC shared the results of the trip with NSC members and after additional discussion in electronic format the rest of the members of the Committee agreed to support the project.

So, the project is approved and the project work is starting. The project from the block “Under consideration” goes to the block “On-going projects”.
Look for additional page of the project here.