RECSOIL workshop and bilateral meetings (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

On 11 March 2024, a workshop was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to introduce the RECSOIL initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture of Uzbekistan, the FAO country office in Uzbekistan, and other partners. The RECSOIL initiative aims to improve soil health, with a focus on increasing or maintaining soil organic carbon stocks, being a key factor for soil health and land restoration. Soil organic carbon stocks also make up one of the three metrics currently used to assess land degradation within Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 15.3.1. RECSOIL’s comprehensive toolkit for measuring and monitoring soil organic carbon complements the ongoing efforts to achieve land degradation neutrality in the country, as well as complementing the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture, who seek to align carbon sequestration practices in agriculture with international best practices.

After a presentation of the RECSOIL process and the roles and responsibilities of project partners, bilateral meetings were held with government representatives, technical stakeholders, and farmers’ associations in which partners were identified for project governance.

A presentation about the activities and main initiatives of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP), including RECSOIL, was also provided to students and faculty members at the Tashkent State Agrarian University.

Global Soil Doctors Programme training sessions (Bukhara, Uzbekistan)

Efforts to address land degradation and bolster soil health continued with the launch of the Global Soil Doctors Programme in Uzbekistan. From the 12 to 15 March 2024, comprehensive training sessions were conducted, engaging agronomy and soil science professionals along with farmers from the southeast of the country in the Bukhara region. The training was conducted by the GSP, partnered with the Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemical Research, the national promoter of the Global Soil Doctors Programme in Uzbekistan, as well as with the Soil Composition, Repository and Quality Analysis Centre, Tashkent State Agrarian University, and the Bukhara Natural Resources Management Institute, who were the programme collaborators. These training sessions were primarily aimed at addressing soil salinity and fertility issues, providing farmers with practical techniques to assess soil pH, texture, and structure as well as management strategies to optimize soil nutrients, increase soil organic matter, and remediate salt affected soils.

The Global Soil Doctors Programme is being implemented in partnership with the FAO country office through the project Integrated natural resources management in drought prone and salt affected agricultural production landscapes in Central Asia and Turkey (CACILM-2), funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF).

Muhammadjon Kosimov, nationalmanager of the CACILM-2 project, emphasized the vital importance of improving capacities on soil health assessment at the grassroots level: “It is important to enhance soil specialists' knowledge and recognize farmers' crucial role as custodians of the soil”. He stressed that “farmers should realize that the decisions they make in their small plots of land can have significant impact on the environment”. Kosimov underscored “the necessity of seeing the soil as a precious resource to be cherished and protected” and highlighted the key role of managing soils sustainably and the need to address the challenges faced by farmers.

Through the training sessions conducted with the Global Soil Doctors Programme, a plan was created to continue disseminating knowledge to farmers, strengthening capacities to identify and address key soil degradation issues. Future implementation will involve the training over one hundred champion farmers across Bukhara, Kashkadarya, Khorezm and other provinces, who will continue to train other farmers across Uzbekistan.

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