Drought Fears in South Highlight Need for Coordination

A warning to farmers in southern Kazakstan that a drought is expected this growing season has come too late, and NBCentralAsia observers say that poor coordination of the use of irrigation waters could lead to substantial crop losses.



On April 13, representatives of the water agency for southern Kazakstan, Yugvodkhoz, told the Kazakstan Today news agency that the anticipated shortage has forced a 20 per cent reduction in the volume of water allocated for irrigation in the South Kazakstan region compared with last year’s quota.



Experts at Yugvodkhoz have recommended that farmers reassess how they use their land, substitute drought-resistant plants for crops that need a lot of watering, and reduce the total area used to grow cotton by 15 to 20 per cent.



But NBCentralAsia observers say the warning comes too late in the day, as farmers have already decided what and how much they are going to sow.



Agriculture expert Medeu Sagynbekov believes the local authorities will be unable to avert crop losses incurred because of the drought.



“All the peasants have already decided what crops to grow, bought the seeds and found buyers for their produce. And that’s what they will do. Attempting to get peasants to change direction, especially in a hurry, will fail that also entails changing the market,” he said.



To avoid losses, Sagynbekov says the approach to the irrigation issue should be systematic rather than seasonal.



Ludmila Kovaleva, agriculture editor at the Yuzhny Kazakhstan newspaper, said farmers are unlikely to heed the advice in any case. “You can be sure none of the peasants will go for this [advised change to crops]. They will ask, ‘Why should I reduce production and not anybody else?’ And then they’ll just hope that perhaps there will be enough water to go round.”



Kovaleva said agriculture experts have proposed a system for coordinating the distribution of irrigation water among farms according to a schedule, and she believes this could work.



But farmers will have to cooperate more if the method is to succeed, and so far they have failed to do so.



“Nobody wants to do this for fear that there will be no water left when it comes to their turn,” she said.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)