FAO, Azerbaijan and irrigation problems Review by Caliber.Az

Every year on October 16, countries around the world celebrate World Food Day - a memorable date established in 1979 by a resolution of the 20th session of the conference of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). On this day, FAO holds events to raise public awareness about the food problem, take measures to increase productivity in the agricultural sector, strengthen food security, draw attention to climate issues, etc.

In 2023, FAO dedicated the key theme of World Food Day to irrigation issues: activities under the theme “Water for Life. Water for Food" took place in many countries around the world, including Azerbaijan, where the corresponding forum was held at ADA University.

According to the UN, due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, wars, natural disasters and climate change, from 691 to 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022, which is 122 million more than in the relatively prosperous pre-crisis year 2019. This negativity has only worsened this year, given the breakdown of the “grain deal” concluded between the UN and Russia, as well as the outbreak of another Palestinian-Israeli war in the Middle East.

It is noteworthy that one of the main causes of hunger and crop failure is associated with the problem of lack of water for irrigation needs - climate changes in recent decades, which have significantly accelerated global desertification processes, have resulted in extreme droughts in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, etc.

These objective factors are aggravated by extensive methods of land use and irrigation, uncontrolled anthropogenic activities that disrupt the ecological balance in the field of water use. Finally, in many regions of the world, there is an imbalance in the annual flow of transboundary rivers due to the uncoordinated construction of hydroelectric facilities and reservoirs, depriving many downstream countries of access to water.  

According to a UNESCO report published recently, 2 billion people around the world - about 26 per cent of the planet's population - do not have access to high-quality drinking water, and the global irrigation system also experiences a comparable shortage of water resources.

Azerbaijan also faces these global problems, where more than a third of the lands involved in agricultural turnover belong to a high-risk zone due to unfavourable soil and climatic conditions. Long-term studies of the state of land in our country have revealed that 3.61 million hectares are susceptible to severe erosion and dehydration to one degree or another, which is 41.8 per cent of the republic’s land fund.

In general, Azerbaijan’s water balance indicators have decreased by 15-20 per cent over the past 20 years. The greatest shortage of water for irrigation and water supply was felt in 2019-2022 due to several dry seasons with low rainfall, which led to a decrease in mountain river flows, as well as shallowing of the Kura and Araz river basins - the two main sources of water in the republic, formed outside Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan is one of the twenty countries in the world most facing the problem of water shortages. Over 70 per cent of Azerbaijan’s water resources today are used for agricultural purposes,” noted FAO representative in Azerbaijan Muhammad Nasar Hayat, who took part in the event organized by the Office of Partnership and Coordination of this UN unit and ADA University on the occasion of World Food Day and the opening of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Sci.

According to the FAO representative, currently, only 3-4 per cent of the world's water resources can be used as a source of drinking water. FAO experts also note high inertia in developing countries, which slows down the process of introducing economical irrigation systems, which would allow a significant reduction in water losses in the field of irrigation. “I hope that the new Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences at ADA University will promote more efficient use of water resources and also help in the development of agriculture,” Hayat added.

In turn, Azerbaijan’s Agriculture Minister Majnun Mammadov, who took part in the event at ADA University, noted that against the backdrop of threats associated with global water shortages, our country is implementing large-scale projects to reconstruct water supply systems.

“Azerbaijan has limited water resources, and at the same time, the increase in population and expansion of agricultural areas against the backdrop of climate change increases the shortage of water resources, and this requires a special and careful approach to basic resources,” the head of the Ministry of Agriculture emphasized.

To recall, a third of irrigation water in our country is lost in distribution irrigation canals, most of which are earthen. Overuse of water can be overcome by concreting worn-out irrigation canals, as well as introducing modern technologies using waterproof polymer coatings. In this regard, it is planned to gradually reduce the water supply through earthen ditches and massively introduce economical irrigation systems, thus the saved water resources can be used to supply water to cities and villages.

Modernization of irrigation systems is already being carried out in fifty agricultural parks, where about 80 per cent of all pivot and other economical irrigation systems available in the republic are concentrated. And these innovations will only expand: according to last year’s decree of the head of state, additional subsidies will be provided to grain-sowing farms for a period of five years, provided they use modern irrigation systems.

It is expected that the cost of about 40 per cent of the purchased pivot and other economical irrigation systems will be subsidized by the state, the remaining funds will be provided through concessional loans.

Currently, work is already underway in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur to create new sources for water supply and irrigation: in general, the Lesser Caucasus region accounts for about 20 per cent of the water resources generated in the country. It is planned to attract the resources of a dozen large rivers, lakes and 24 medium and small reservoirs in the liberated territories.

In the Karabakh region, together with the potential of the Khudafarin reservoir with a capacity of over 1.6 billion cubic metres, as well as the Sarsang and Sugovushan reservoirs, with a capacity of 560 million and 6 million cubic metres, respectively, 9 reservoirs are planned to be modernised or built from scratch in the Karabakh region in the coming years.

Thanks to this potential, the liberated territories will soon become a leading centre of agricultural production, and this is not surprising, since in the Karabakh region as a whole there are 1 million hectares of territories suitable for agricultural production, including 128,000 hectares of irrigated land.

“All over the world, best practices should be introduced for the sustainable development of agriculture and the healthy food industry; for the sustainable development of rural areas, it is important to ensure access of small and medium-sized farms to popular services and the introduction of innovations in the agricultural sector,” Mammadov noted during the forum.

And together with FAO specialists, the agrarian reforms being carried out in Azerbaijan are actively supported by friendly partner countries - Türkiye, Israel, and a number of European Union states.

“Currently, work is underway to expand cooperation between Azerbaijan and Italy in various industries, Italian companies and government agencies are ready to contribute to the process of introducing advanced technologies in the Azerbaijani agricultural sector and in the field of food security,” noted another forum participant at ADA University - Ambassador of Italy to Azerbaijan Claudio Taffuri.

The implementation of international best practices in agriculture is identified as a key factor in agrarian reform in Azerbaijan, aimed at increasing import substitution and ensuring the country's food security. For these purposes, advanced irrigation systems are being introduced, a network of modern agricultural parks and processing enterprises is being developed, including large grain sowing and greenhouse farms, and the interest of farms in intensive agricultural technologies is increasing.

For the same purposes, projects for the digitalization of the agricultural sector are being implemented, industry clustering is being carried out, cooperative forms of management are being introduced, the leasing system of agricultural equipment has been reformed, and transparency in the field of subsidies has been ensured.