Water conservation in the reclamation of saline irrigated lands of Uzbekistan

Scientific-Research Institute of Irrigation and Water Problems, Karasu-4, 11, 100187 Tashkent, Uzbekistan

^* Corresponding author: yulia.i.shirokova@gmail.com

Abstract

On the territory of Uzbekistan, almost half of the area of irrigated land is subject to salinization, for this reason up to 30 % or more of the crop yield is lost. With a shortage of water resources, which will deepen due to climate change, water-saving technologies must be used not only for irrigation but also for the reclamation of saline soils. The authors have developed a new approach to the regulation of the salt regime and soil reclamation. The conducted experiments have established that the use of the Biosolvent preparation almost doubles the efficiency of washing saline lands, due to the increased leaching of salts. To reduce salinity by 0.1% of the total amount of salts, the water-saving unit costs are 610 m3/ha. Calculation on the basis of field experimental data from 2016 (of established indicators of salt removal when using Biosolvent), shows a reduction of soil washing norm by 3000 m3/ha or by 38 %, at the transition of soils from “strong” degree of salinization to “non-saline”. The study 2020 proved that the application of Biosolvent preparation for the melioration of highly saline gypsum soils, combined with their preliminary deep loosening, allows reducing soil salinity by 5 dS/m, due only to atmospheric precipitation.