Irrigated farming

Domination of one type of land use, i.e., irrigated farming oriented to monoculture of cotton in the Central Asian republics led to maximum simplification of the structure of the regional socio-economic system, to enhanced dependence on the functioning of one factor - water resources, while almost completely neglecting social dependence on environmental conditions. 

In the USSR the Aral region provided 90% of cotton and 40% of rice. The country became cotton-independent. This was achieved, primarily, through extensive irrigated farming ignoring herewith the likely consequences of such agricultural practices. 

The unequivocal demonstration of the incidence of muscular dystrophy in animals grazing lush green pasture in New Zealand (Hartley, 1953) and grazing on irrigated farms in Oregon (Muth, 1955) was further evidence that the disease was not a simple dietary deficiency of vitamin E. In all these enzootic muscular dystrophies, however, vitamin E medication either prevented the disease or reduced its incidence. The amounts required were, however, large relative to the amounts normally consumed by animals outside the areas concerned. 

Distribution It is widespread in the irrigated farming zones of Uzbekistan all of Kyrgyzstan. 

Habitat The chul zone. As a weed in cotton and melon fields, vegetable gardens, and all irrigated farming areas. 

The wide development of loess pseudokarst often turns certain territories into pseudokarst badlands over areas as large as a few thousand hectares, and these territories cannot be then utihzed as valuable irrigable farming lands. 

Early in the century the amount of energy output in the form of food was about equal to the commercial energy input to the crop and livestock. That was before electricity, natural gas, and petroleum products were available to the farm. Now at least 10 kcal of commercial energy is used for each kcal of food energy produced. This change has occurred as a result of mechanization, irrigation, and consumer demand for low fat foods and for precooked and prepared foods. 

With a growing scarcity of freshwater available for irrigation, other sources of lower quality like brackish water, saline water, and treated wastewater become more important as additional or substituting inputs for the agricultural sector. At the same time, it is clear that a sophisticated treatment like desalination or nanofiltration under current conditions is still far too expensive to be a major solution to future irrigation water needs. Hence adaptation of farming and irrigation practices to the particular water qualities constitutes a more viable approach. 

Another important test location factor is the availability of water for irrigation and for preparation of the spray solution. The use of culinary water sources (either private or public water sources intended for human consumption) or groundwater (from wells) is usually less problematic than using water from surface sources (rivers, lakes, or canals). If surface water is used for the study, care must be taken to ensure that farm production activities upstream from the plot area have not contaminated the water supply with pesticides that could contaminate the plot area. Careful site selection will help avoid problems from the water available at the site. 

Organic agriculture aims to eliminate residues from production systems, rather than meeting maximum permissible values. Owing to the risks of contamination being introduced onto farms from external sources (e.g. with feed, via air pollution and/or irrigation water) and with greater accuracy of pollution measurement/detection systems, this aim appears to be more and more difficult to achieve. 

---