Uzbekistan: Rehabilitation of Desert Rangelands Affected by Salinity, to Improve Food Security, Combat Desertification and Maintain the Natural Resource Base - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 238

native vegetation with shallow-rooted, annual agricultural crops and halophytic
pastures has resulted in increased recharge causing shallow saline water tables
leading to dryland salinity and loss of plant diversity. This results in greater
amounts of water entering a groundwater system, water table rise and the
concentration of naturally occurring salts near the soil surface.

• The Integrated Biosaline Agriculture Program for sustainable use of marginal

mineralized water and salt affected soils for food-feed crops and forage legumes
assists in improving food security, alleviating poverty and enhancing ecosystem
health in smallholder crop-livestock systems. Diversification of agro-ecosystems
and development of new agricultural capacities could increase income source of
rural poor and farmers which so far are often dependent on two major crops (e.g.
cotton and wheat).

Keywords Halophytes • Biosaline agriculture • Saline soils • Poverty allevia-
tion • Rural poor • Small-holder • Crop-livestock systems • Food security •
Agro-silvi-pastoral systems • Revegetation strategies • Drought tolerant fodder •
Xerophytes • Sand dunes • Salinity gradient • Geobotanical survey • Carbon
isotope analysis • Spatial and temporal changes • Grazing impacts • Above and
below ground biomass • Salt-tolerant species • Radial attenuation of stocking
pressure • Piosphere • Aral sea

1 Introduction

The inland Irano-Touranian desert ecosystem (that encompasses Uzbekistan and its
neighbors) is considered one of the most fragile under currently ongoing climate
changes. It is characterized by reduced richness of species, especially trees and
shrubs, and, thus, by low resistance to local extinctions. With an area of 447,000 km 2
(approximately the size of France), Uzbekistan stretches 1,425 km from west to east
and 930 km from north to south (Fig. 13.1 ).
The physical environment of Uzbekistan is diverse, ranging from the flat, desert
topography that comprises almost 80 % of the country's territory to mountain peaks
in the east reaching about 4,500 m above sea level. The south-eastern portion of
Uzbekistan is characterized by the foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains, which
rise higher in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and form a natural border
between Central Asia and China. The vast Kyzyl Kum Desert, shared with southern
Kazakhstan, dominates the northern lowland portion of Uzbekistan. The most fertile
part of Uzbekistan, the Fergana Valley, is an area of about 21,440 km 2 directly east
of the Kyzyl Kum and surrounded by mountain ranges to the north, south, and east.
The western end of the valley is defined by the course of the Syrdariya river, which
runs across the north-eastern sector of Uzbekistan from southern Kazakhstan into
the Kyzyl Kum. Although the Fergana Valley receives just 100-300 mm of rainfall
per year, only small patches of desert remain in the center and along ridges on the
periphery of the valley. The remainder has been developed for irrigated cropland
and horticulture.