Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, in his speech at a meeting of the National Development Council on June 10 in Dushanbe, warned farmers about a possible drought.
The head of state noted that in the spring of 2024, ongoing rainfall caused significant damage to houses and agriculture.
“Last autumn and winter, on the contrary, there was very little rainfall. This circumstance has led to a reduction in the sources of water resources in the region, more than 60 percent of which are located on the territory of Tajikistan, said Emomali Rahmon. “In this regard, it is more likely that we will experience drought again this year.”
Along with this, every year, due to the impact of environmental and economic factors, agricultural lands go out of circulation.
According to the head of state, now more than 40 thousand hectares of land are in an unsatisfactory reclamation condition.
“This situation creates an additional burden on the state budget. But there are not enough funds for the implementation of public investment projects in the field of adaptation to climate change, disaster prevention, bank protection works, land reclamation and irrigation, pasture restoration and other areas,” he said.
In this regard, the President of Tajikistan considers it necessary to develop and implement new financing mechanisms to achieve sustainable results in preventing the negative consequences of natural disasters, reforming the field of land reclamation and irrigation.
To this end, the government of the country adopted the Water Sector Reform Program of the Republic of Tajikistan for 2016-2025, as well as the Green Economy Development Strategy for 2023-2037, aimed at overcoming existing problems and sustainable development of agriculture.
According to a study by Chinese scientists published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the southern part of Central Asia will suffer the most in the near future – Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
The interdecadal Pacific Oscillation plays a major role in this. It, according to researchers, will lead to a reduction in precipitation in Central Asia.
