A JOINT STUGGLE FOR BREAD

Global climate change and the natural disasters it entails, on the one hand, and the growth in the world's population - and that means demands for more agricultural produce - on the other are a constant concern for governments and international organizations.

Risks in agriculture and food security, ways of combating them and questions of international cooperation in this sphere were discussed at the 53rd session of the Board of Trustees of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), which was held in Baku at the beginning of December. Experts and scientists discussed the new technologies of agricultural production for providing a double return which were proposed by the centre.

According to the chairman of the board, Camilla Toulmin, this is the first time ICARDA has held such an event in Baku and this was a reflection of the importance of cooperation with the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus. For his part, Azerbaijan's Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ilham Quliyev noted that ICARDA's work is acquiring global importance in view of climate change which is having an ever increasing impact on the agricultural sector, and Azerbaijan is ready to expand cooperation with the centre in order to optimize agricultural activity in the country.

One of the priorities of this cooperation is improving land reclamation and irrigation farming and carrying out research to ensure two harvests a year. And the most notable achievement in cooperation with ICARDA has been the creation in Azerbaijan of a gene bank of plants. Over 7,000 specimens have been counted here, collected from all regions of the republic, and over 2,900 varieties of plants are being preserved in the open air. 

Azerbaijan has been a member of ICARDA since 1995, and in the context of this cooperation a large quantity of genetic material has come into the country. This includes over 25,000 genetic varieties of soft wheat and 8,800 of hard wheat. Of grain crops we have received 48,900 varieties of soft and hard wheat and acquired 7,814 varieties of pulses, increasing the plant bank to 56,094 specimens. Agricultural scientists have produced such long-term varieties of soft wheat as Azamatli, Qobustan and (Taleh)-38 which are being sown on 360,000 hectares of fields or 35 per cent of all grain crop areas. Four varieties of soft wheat have been zoned. Through joint efforts with scientific centres new long-term varieties of winter wheat have been created which are noted for their high resistance to stripe rust, which has helped to increase their yield. The improved varieties of wheat that have been created as part of cooperation with ICARDA today occupy half the crop area of the republic and 6 per cent of it is sown to barley and 20 per cent to pulses - chickpeas and lentils.

Since 1993 ICARDA has played an active part in the advancement of farming systems based on conservation agriculture (CA). These measures are helping to improve the effectiveness of water utilization and prevent erosion. The methods that are being devised are contributing to an increase in crop yields and a reduction in production losses and are enabling water and soil resources to be used rationally.

Land degradation is a basic problem nationwide which seriously affects yield growth. Here, the main task of agricultural science is to carry out serious research and to increase the level of soil fertility. According to the General Director of the Agricultural Research Centre of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture, Asaf Musayev, there are 1,683,000 hectares sown to crops, which constitutes 37 per cent of the country's territory. Of this figure 575,000 hectares are subject to erosion and over 660,000 ha to salinization - i.e. over 1m hectares of land may be classified as being of low fertility. Vigorous processes of swamp formation, unregulated cattle grazing, a decrepit infrastructure of irrigation systems and drainage emphasize how urgent this problem is. To this one might add that almost a half of the crop area in the country and 20 per cent of forests are suffering from erosion.

Since 2011 ICARDA, together with the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization] has been conducting a project in Azerbaijan aimed at improving the standard of living of the rural population and strengthening food security by increasing the effectiveness of irrigation systems. From the results of the project it has been established that in Azerbaijan grain growing using minimum tillage helps obtain, among other things, a maize harvest equal to or higher than winter wheat, as compared with traditional methods.

According to Musayev, a number of the technologies proposed by ICARDA have undergone pilot testing in the country with positive results. "The laser technology processes which were suggested have helped to increase yield by 5-6 quintals per hectare and management efficiency by 15-20 per cent," he said. The new technology of bulk re-seeding of second crops after harvesting the first has been even more effective. In this instance, after one crop is harvested another is sown. Then, he went on, yield is 52.4 q/ha (first harvest) and 51.5 q/ha (second crops), providing 168 and 197 per cent return respectively. And as soon as the second crops are harvested, one can return to sowing the first. "This is fundamentally important for smallholder farms in Azerbaijan," Musayev concluded.

By 2012 the methods of conservation agriculture had been introduced on an area of 1,246 hectares. These methods of using water and soil resources will be applied by farmers in the majority of steppe lowland areas. And one other thing - as part of a separate project, supported by the OPIC international development fund, ICARDA has been testing ways of rehabilitating, intensifying and diversifying production in areas of lowland degradation to provide forage for livestock. The innovative direct seeding system has proved to be a quicker and cheaper method compared with transplanting.

Generally speaking, it should be noted that over the past 10 years Azerbaijan's farmers have achieved considerable success in growing crops and increasing their yield. Since 2001, when people in rural areas were relieved of most types of taxes, production growth in monetary terms has increased from 1.5bn dollars to 6.1bn dollars. The production of vegetable-growing and stockbreeding output has trebled and the production of meat and poultry has quadrupled. 

At the same time, Azerbaijan has a powerful potential for growth, dictated by its relative advantages in the production of traditional agricultural products, enjoys favourable soil and climatic conditions and has relatively cheap manpower, as well as access to rail transport. There is an opportunity to diversify vegetable growing and the production of both grain and more high-value crops such as fruit and vegetables. The country has the opportunity to branch out to the export markets of not just Russia but the neighbouring states, too.

Today Azerbaijan's grain farmers meet only 85 per cent of the population's demand for bread and bakery products. And so the country has to buy in from abroad about 1.5m tonnes of wheat. To eradicate this deficiency additional measures must be taken to introduce new technology and improve the conditions for growing grain crops. And in this aspect cooperation with international institutions and agricultural centres and an active and daily exchange of experience with colleagues from other countries can help to achieve this cherished goal.