Pashayev E.P. - Methodological Issues of Rational use of Water Resources of Azerbaijan

Written by Erkin Turdibaev

Friday, 24 February 2017

The aim of this paper is to develop methodical bases of management of water and land resources to determine the relationship between natural and economic processes and a water factor and the laws of their development in support of a set of measures to ensure the development of the agrarian sector of Azerbaijan, taking into account the efficient use of water and land resources. Providing the population with food and industrial raw materials requires the intensification of agricultural production on a completely different than in previous periods, technological basis. There are all prerequisites for this, but there are also significant obstacles. About 60 % of the territory is covered by mountains, only 4.0 million hectares is an agricultural land, of which arable land and perennial plantings are considered to be the most valuable. So, a perfect irrigation system is the only way for agricultural production intensification in arid climate. There are 3.2 million hectares suitable for irrigation, but only 1.361 million hectares are irrigated because of water shortage. More than 80 % of gross output is obtained from irrigated lands, for which more than 18 billion m³/year of water are used. The increasing water scarcity in recent years has become a constraint to the growth of irrigated land and the agricultural production increase. Another limiting factor is an exposure to land salinization. Over 600 thousand ha of irrigated lands have been salinized, 200 thousand ha of them are highly salinized. To improve their condition large reclamation works such as drain construction or leaching are required. Complex reconstruction works are required for 715 thousand ha, and replacement of open drainage by subsurface drainage is necessary for 300 thousand ha. Download (in Russian) (pdf, 302 kB)  Source: http://www.rosniipm-sm.ru/

 

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