Turkmen farmers who grow cotton complain of a critical lack of water for irrigation.
According to residents of the Jeyhun agricultural association of the Chardzhevsky etrap of the Lebap province, immediately after sowing, the culture was abandoned and not processed at all due to lack of water.
Over the years, no one has cleaned the irrigation canals along which water flows from the Amu Darya River. Now, even if water enters them, it is not able to get to the fields.
The cultivated areas in the villages of Balykçy, Araplar, Uçbaş, and Esgiler were also left without water. The situation is serious, according to the agronomists of the association. According to a resident of the village of Uchbash, in normal times, cotton begins to be harvested in August, but this year there may not be a crop.
Residents from the above settlements turned to the local authorities, namely the deputy khyakim of the Lebap province for agriculture, to the khyakilik of Chardzhevsky etrap, to Archinlik (local authority), with an explanation of the situation.
They said that if the lands did not receive water, it would be impossible to fulfill the state order for the delivery of cotton. But the authorities, neither at the district nor at the regional level, helped in any way to resolve the issue. Irrigators also have problems with irrigation. After the harvest, they occupied the land with other crops such as greens, vegetables, and corn.
It is noteworthy that the problem of landowners is not the lack of water, but the desolation of irrigation canals. Their silted channels do not allow moisture to pass through and it accumulates on lands near the Amu Darya. Thus, some fields suffer from drought and others from flooding.
At the same time, local and regional authorities do not solve this global problem of agriculture in Turkmenistan. Meanwhile, agricultural agricultural production in the country is declining. According to the Chronicle of Turkmenistan resource, in 2018 local farmers harvested half as much cotton and 3 times less wheat than was announced.
