One of the main reasons for the ecological condition detailed above is the monoculture of cotton that caused loss of humus, exhaustion of the soil and its physical and chemical qualities, and general degradation of land.
Land resources
The majority of agriculture (95%) is carried out on irrigated lands. Occupying in agriculture of republic 15 %, they give more than 98 % of total agricultural production.
One of the main reasons for the ecological condition detailed above is the monoculture of cotton that caused loss of humus, exhaustion of the soil and its physical and chemical qualities, and general degradation of land.
The irrigation system was most extensively developed in the 1970s and 1980s, when about 1.4 million hectares of new irrigated lands were put into use. By 1990 the area of irrigated lands had increased by 60%, with corresponding increase in agricultural production.
The cotton monoculture equired a large-scale application of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides. The huge chemical doses and the highly intensive agricultural practices asked the true extent of soil fertility loss.
The newly developed agricultural land incorporated saline and low-productivity lands as part of the irrigation programm.
It has resulted to degradation of natural regulating mechanisms, transformation of land from complex ecological system to substratum for transmission of mineral combinations to roots of plants that has resulted in decrease of efficiency of irrigated lands.
Content of the humus in the soil, which is basis of its fertility, has decreased by 30-40%. Soils with very low humus content (0.4-1%) occupy about 40% of the total irrigated lands, and low productivity soils cover 0.5 million hectares.
Pollution of the soils
Progress in land resources
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