Agriculture for Marginal Lands in Central Asia

in the Aral Sea and Caspian Sea Basins are struggling to grow enough food and animal feed to meet the need of a fast growing population. The situation is further exacerbated due to the magnitude of land degradation and salinity, coupled with inappropriate cropping patterns especially the monocropping of wheat and cotton, overgrazing, and inadequate on-farm management practices. This has led to the loss of biodiversity, soil fertility and organic matter. Cumulative losses/costs associated with desertification and land degradation in the Central Asia (CA) region-Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan-has been estimated at $2.5 billion.