A meeting of the working group of the participants of the regional project of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), which is being implemented in Turkmenistan with the coordination of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection, has been held recently on the basis of the National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna. In order to discuss the positions held and to present the planned events for the current year, the meeting was attended by senior officials of structural divisions of the agro-ecological ministry, including the Committee for Hydrometeorology of Turkmenistan, and also specialists from the Mejlis of Turkmenistan and the State Committee for Water Resources. The project is called “Integrated Natural Resources Management in Drought-Prone and Salt-Affected Agricultural Production Systems in Central Asia and Turkey” (CACILM-2). Its goal is to restore the fertility of agricultural lands and to increase the productivity of natural pastures in different agro-ecological regions of the country – mountains, desert and river oasis. It is planned to introduce advanced methods of desalinisation of irrigated soils, increase in their harvests and return of degraded pastures of the Karakum Desert to circulation by sowing seeds of high-yield psammophytes – white and black saxaul, Calligonum, Salsola richteri, Astragalus and other woody plants.

To Increase the Yield of Land without Harm to the Environment