The Agency of "Uzbekcosmos"

On May 13-15 of this year, an international seminar on “Developing Drought and Agricultural Monitoring in Central Asia through Remote Sensing and Geospatial Technologies” was held at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Pathum Thani, Thailand.

The event, organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), was attended by experts from government agencies from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as international experts from the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, India and Mongolia.

A delegation led by Ismail Rasulov, Head of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology Transfer of the Uzcosmos Agency, also participated in the international seminar and made a presentation on the current problems and ongoing work on monitoring drought and salinity in agricultural lands in the country.

As part of the seminar, a new project to expand the capabilities of effective drought monitoring in agricultural lands for Central Asian countries was officially launched. Within the framework of this project, a “Roadmap” will be developed for each country, the qualifications of relevant specialists will be improved, and the possibilities for using modern geospatial data will be expanded.

Within the framework of this initiative, the Uzcosmos Agency has set itself the goal of strengthening the scientific and technical capacity in the field of drought monitoring in agricultural lands in Uzbekistan, strengthening international cooperation, and introducing space technologies into practice.

In particular, it should be noted that on February 20 of this year, the Uzcosmos Agency launched the project “Determination of soil salinity using satellite images” in Tashkent in cooperation with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). This will contribute to sustainable methods of food security, agriculture and land resources management in Uzbekistan by using remote sensing technologies, advanced geographic information systems and artificial intelligence capabilities, and will improve data collection, analysis and dissemination.

90 arable lands in Zarbdor and adjacent districts of Jizzakh region were selected as a test area for the project. There, the level of salinity of the lands will be studied using satellite images, and it is planned to copy and in-depth analyze them for laboratory tests.

This will allow for accurate statistics of the most saline lands in the country in the coming years, identify fertile areas for agriculture, and provide farmers with complete information on the condition of arable lands. As a result, it will be possible to properly distribute resources and raw materials in the use of agricultural land, take agrotechnical measures based on the level of salinity of the land and the soil and climatic conditions of the area.

Uzcosmos Agency Information Service.