Let's start from the beginning. We have a project on laser leveling of the fields. It is implemented by NGO KRASS from Urgench. The name of the NGO isdecoded as Khorezm Rural Advisory Support Services. But support is concentrated on a very specific field, i.e. keeping agriculture with the help of the most rational method which will allow the farmers and simple villagers to get both stable income from farming to save the natural capital – a basic of farming. How once can use competently the land, water and other elements of natural capital (the word “capital” is used here intentionally! It does not mean resources. It is exactly the capital!) for getting good crop and income? This center can give such advice.
The center was created in the framework of the joint project of the Urgench State University, UNESCO and ZEF/Bonn University and currently it begins to expand its activity of spreading resource-saving technologies not only in Khorezm region but also all over the country. We really hope that soon NGO KRASS will be well-known as one of the most reliable and professional analytical centers in the field of sustainable farming in Uzbekistan.

Now exactly about events that happened in Namangan and Andijan. It is known that academic people are often connected through professional and friendly relations. Director of NGO KRASS, Professor Nazar Ibragimov has several postgraduate students and colleague teachers in Andijan Agricultural Institute. Of course, they permanently communicate with each other. The friends from Andijan got to know about the work implemented by the project of ZEF/Bonn and NGO KRASS and they were invited to hold a training seminar on such techniques for student and teachers of the institute. NGO KRASS team immediately responded to this invitation. Presentations were prepared and a trip was organized.

If we are to go to Fergana valley, this opportunity should be used maximally. Because of the invitation from Namangan Engineering-Economic Institute it was also decided to hold such training in Namangan Institute too.

December 2nd. We started the trip. The weather was frosty enough but also bright. The pass was crossed calmly. After dinner we were already in Namangan, in the institute. After a usual visit to the library and giving various informational materials on the nature for students, we started the seminar.

Firstly, Oybek Egamberdiev spoke. He told about the technique of laser leveling of the fields in a simple and understandable language. It is a model project for the GEF SGP in many respects.

download Oybek's presentation on laser planning (only in Uzbek language)

Then Inna Rudenko who is the leading economist of the project and NGO told about the concept of virtual water. The concept is new for all the students and teachers. In general, a few people know about this concept in Uzbekistan. But it can be widely used and is really important for building the policy of using the natural capital of the country. How?

Briefly, it can be explained like this. Few people think about the fact that water is used for manufacturing of any product. A lot of water is used. And all water that was used for manufacturing of this product, which is not contained in the product directly, but it is embodied in this product. Water is used for production of bakegoods; it is also used in processing of wheat into flour and in growing wheat; water is used in the production of petrol for transportation of flour, wheat and others. And the direct content of water in the loaf of bread is minimal. But if we count the amount of water that was spent for production of this loaf during the whole chain, during the whole process, we can see that more than 2,000 litres of water are spent for production of 1 loaf of bread. 50 thousand litres of water are spent for production of 1 kg of beef in Uzbekistan. This is the concept of virtual water.

Here are conclusions that can be made if carry out economical analysis. In her work I. Rudenko has shown the following conclusions:

We could considerably reduce the number of lands that are used for sowing the cotton and the amount of water used for production of the raw cotton if we started to develop the processing industry more actively. It is more profitable to sell processed cotton in the form of any following product in the chain of added value, than to sell just raw material. We can process cotton and for example, get the total revenue from selling of 1 kg of fabric as we get from selling 1 ton of raw cotton. But for production of 1 kg of fabric much less cotton is required and therefore, less land, water and energy.

But we can make further calculations. Water is spent for the production of every subsequent item. If we want to save the water and use it more effectively for various purposes, it is more beneficial for us to stop on the production and selling of yarn, but not on the production of fabric and T-shirts.

Such calculations can be done not only for water, but also for the land and energy.
The participants of the meeting listened about new concept with big interest.

download Inna's presentation about conseption of virtual water

Then there was a presentation of Akmal Akramkhanov about the use of IT in agriculture. Akmal acquainted the students and teachers with the new possibilities of using geographical informational systems (GIS), about advantages of this system, its main concepts etc.

download presentation of Akmal Akramhanov on GIS

Next, Yulduz Jumaniyazova told about Greenseeker equipment which was really interesting for the audience. Such equipment is widely used in progressive countries in agriculture and help to decrease significantly the expenses and increase the crop capacity. Such equipment can be called as one of the elements of precision agriculture and it is used for rational consumption of fertilizers. In precision agriculture the use of such equipment sometimes along with navigation system, helps to distribute fertilizers, nutrients or medicine, taking into account agrochemical indicators of a specific plot of field. The device is installed on a special platform. When a tractor is moving, the device is checking the vegetative state of the plants in the site which is being passed, calculates the required quantity of nitrogen or other fertilizer, and gives a command to introduce exactly that amount of fertilizer. Thus, it appears that each site of the field and each plant get exactly as much fertilizer as is necessary for good growth.

download presentation of Yulduz Djumaniyazova (only in Uzbek language)

Then Elena Kang showed her presentation. The topic of her research work was “The meaning and practice of information and consultative services (extension service) for promotion of the knowledge and technologies for resource-saving”. In some way NGO KRASS and GEF SGP act as information and consultative services.

download presentation of Elena Kan

And finally Alexey Volkov told about the GEF SGP and about possibilities of using the funds of Global Environmental Facilities (GEF) for realization of projects for protection and rational use of natural capital. The participants were interested to know about projects that are being realized by the GEF SGP. The projects on aquaculture, Zero tillage, biogas etc. were mentioned.

An interesting quiz with small gifts from the GEF SGP was carried out at the end. The audience was asked questions on the presented topics and those who answered best of all got small prizes.
Next day, on the 3rd of December, the same training was held in Andijan, in Agricultural Institute. The weather became cold that day and it was snowing in Tashkent. There was no snow in Andijan but it was cold anyway.

The participants of the training in Andijan were also active, asked a lot of questions and were very satisfied and thankful for the training.
Before leaving we were invited to one of the local cafes. There, for the first time I tasted shashlik that was sold in meters. 3 meters of shashlik for the whole team were more than enough.