Sustainable land use management in Konegummez village, Turkmenistan

Water for household consumptions as drinking water, as well as for irrigation in agriculture and for watering livestock, is a basic and scarce resource in rural areas of Turkmenistan. Thus, in semi-arid climate, water is a strong driver for development and sustainable land use management.

In 1991, Konegummez villagers were able to build their own water supply system. One person was appointed as mirab (a person responsible for equitable distribution of water and monitoring of irrigation schedules) for further technical maintenance of the system.

In addition to this, with the participation of international development organisations, in 2006 villagers constructed a water well for supplying water to new agricultural land for growing fruit trees and vegetables.

To date, the village owns 4 water wells and 5 catchment dams have been built, where reservoirs with large volumes of water have been formed. These reservoirs not only supply people with water, but also serve as a watering point for livestock. 

In order to protect water sources in the in vicinity of the village, villagers planted 10,000 juniper trees. On these conservation sites, grazing of livestock is strongly controlled. The measure went hand-in-hand with reducing the number of livestock significantly.

In Konegummez the availability of fertile land is limited. Farmers are growing vegetables, such as tomatoes, carrots, cabbage or potatoes. Almost every family owns fruit trees, e.g. apple, apricot, walnut and almond. Harvest is used for family consumptions first and the surplus is stored for the winter.

In 2014, local farmers with support of a project built the first greenhouse (90 m²). The leader and elder of the village were appointed with the responsibility to manage the greenhouse.  The purpose of the construction of this greenhouse was to train local farmers and thereby adapting to negative impacts of climate change. The following year, three more greenhouses were built by farmers on their own.     

On a leased field plot of 33 ha farmers grow fruit trees and vegetables. More than half of the harvest is sold. The plot is irrigated by drip irrigation, what ensures a very low water consumption.

On individual leased rainfed fields, farmers grow wheat by government order. On these plots, the income from farming depends on the level of precipitation and, thus, varies widely from year to year.

In general, over the last 15 years, farmer families have diversified their agricultural production significantly and made it more resilient to the negative impacts of climate change.

The main income source of farmers is livestock. Every year, when the number of small ruminants has increased, sheep are sold at the market place or used for consumption purposes, to maintain the carrying capacity of natural pastures. The sale of sheep is mainly done in summer. For personal use, animals are slaughtered in the fall, and canned as stocks for consumption until next fall. At present, there are 4 herds of small ruminants in the village, with a total of 5,000 heads, and 700 heads of cattle.

In addition to meat products, farmer families generate small income from producing local cheese (cow and goat). Recently, the demand for goat cheese has increased by people from the regional city centers traveling to the village. 

Recently, animal owners reduced by 30% (from 7,500 to 5,000) the number of small ruminants in their herds. The number of animals is controlled by bayars (elected farmers who have extensive experience in livestock keeping). Bayars check the number of animals every two months and warn the animal owners to reduce the number of livestock if the herd exceeds 1,000 heads. At the end of each season, farmers sell their animals to reduce the herds to 800 heads. Farmers also began to improve the breed of cattle, hardy to the harsh cold of the highlands.

The development of Konegummez is characterized by strong collective action. By organizing themselves, the community members have achieved to encourage government agencies to provide basic services as, for instance:

• 1940s to 1960a: school, post office, library, grocery store, electricity and the first water well were established.
• 1999 the village was gasified and 2016 the villages access road was asphalted.
• Villagers built 3 large bridges themselves.

In the 2000s, in order to sustainably manage natural resources and handling other issues of the community, an informal committee was formed, including 9 villagers. The group learned to identify community challenges and solutions and how to develop action plans. Each year, the group develops an annual action plan, which is socialized and finally agreed on with the villagers. There is also a long-term planning, focusing on bigger issues.

After having performed a large amount of social and environmental protection work in the community, there is an understanding of villagers to continue solving problems by joint efforts. Community leaders have emerged who have the trust of the villagers. There is also mutual understanding with local authorities and government organisations, the latter supporting villages in tackling their challenges.

Konegummez is provided with many domestic services and ecosystem services from natural resources. During the second world war, the villagers, unlike others, did not starve; diligence, mutual assistance, organization, as well as hard working and love for their land helped them to survive in difficult times.

Since the foundation of the village, the dwellers have continuously engaged in collective action, based on mutual trust and the believe ‘together we are strong’. Over time, the strong social cohesion has also ‘paid’ for the villagers. These positive experiences fortified the believe ‘together we are strong’ and motivated villagers to always aspire new horizons and to develop their village further.

That was also the reason why they were able to build an informal committee in order to sustainably plan and manage natural resources in the village. The group includes a total of 9 people: shepherds, bayar, village elders, mirab, farmers and one teacher.

Another example for ‘modern’ organisation is related to the sale of agricultural products. Farmers have developed a resource-saving mechanism. They choose from their own villagers one person with a small truck, who goes to the market and sells the harvest of several farmers there. From the income received, each farmer pays 10%.