The project has a strategic importance for agricultural sector of Uzbekistan and soils improvements. Currently almost all irrigated lands of Uzbekistan are under the regime of cultivating cotton and wheat being a state policy. De facto farmers can not choose what other crops to plant until they meet the demand of the Government for these two crops. This certainly diminish the chance of soils to have proper balance in the situation of total absence of crop rotation.
Scientists from one of Tashkent Institutes came up with an idea that was used long before but now has been totally signled out from the farmers operations due to many factors. The project will introduce the technology back to life.
The technology of fito-melioration of soils include the following components:
To the chain of two main crops (cotton and wheat) other crops are being introduced that are cultivated during production of the main crops, without interfering into the state order and changing the existing crop regime. Currently the chain is as follows (example of one field):
1st year Spring - Fall
Cotton
a) Fall 1st year - Wheat
or
b) 2nd year Spring - cotton again.
2nd Year
June - wheat harvest and the field is left alone
or
fall - cotton harvest and the field is planted with wheat
3rd and 4th year - fall - wheat planted, June next year - harvested
The proposed technology includes the following scheme:
after cotton harvested in fall - planing of legumes. Spring legumes are harvested for fodder, cotton planted again. If a field under wheat, after it is harvested plantation and 2 harvests of alfalfa, and then if next year is wheat, then wheat is planted after alfalfa harvest in fall; if next year is for cotton - then alfalfa is left till spring, then harvested and then cotton is planted.
The project entails to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed technology both for income generation for farmers and for soil improvement without interfering into the state policies against two main crops