NICoPA - transition to sustainable farming

Global climate changing increasingly impacts on agriculture development, utilization of energy resources and environment, moreover, the continuous growth of the Earth’s population raises the most urgent problem connected with providing humanity with food. From this perspective, the world faces a triple task in the 21st century:

• to feed the growing population
• to do this in an environmentally sustainable way, and
• to cope with the problem of hunger

However, it is impossible to increase the farming production volumes using the old technological basis, since this will proportionally require increasing the use of land, water and energy. Precision agriculture is the way to tackle such challenges which could help to increase the efficiency of labour, increase yields, reduce the application of nitrate fertilizers and reduce the cost of cultivation of various crops. Transition to sustainable farming also requires training professionals able to use geospatial technologies and remote sensing technology to collect and analyse necessary information and other new eco activities.

Erasmus+ the project NICoPA (New and innovative courses on precision agriculture) has been implemented since January 2019 at three Turkmen universities: Niyazov Turkmen State University (TAU), Turkmen Agricultural Institute in Dashoguz (TAI), and Turkmen State Institute of Architecture and Construction (TSACI). Two institutions’ coordinators responded our questions on the project priorities and planned activities.

– What has already been done by the Turkmen team and what are the team further objectives?

O. Durdyev (TAU) - The main objective of NICoPA is the development and accreditation of BA and MS curricula for training specialists according to the Bologna requirements and the new developments in the field of Precision agriculture.

With active support of EU partners from Technical University of Berlin and Space Technologies (Berlin), Turkmen partners took part in the upgrading of existing and development and implementation of new curricula. All introduced programs are built on the principles of green economy. On the basis of new and modernised disciplines, students learn to utilize the latest technologies for the efficient use of irrigation water, energy and fertilizers for agriculture production, and take practical classes at experimental farms of their universities using the fundamentals of “precision agriculture”, “photogrammetry and the Earth remote sensing” and “geoinformation technologies”.

In the framework of NICoPA, they have lectures and seminars on the sustainable development and climate change topics including laboratory works and applied study of particular issues. We also use case methods for effectively integrating the studied materials and providing our students with skills to analyze and suggest solutions for their effective participation in future in the environmental protection in reality.

B. Kurbanov (TAI) – In the framework of NICoPA, we have been able to acquire unique innovative equipment, have created virtual classrooms on precision farming, and, also, organized the work of practical laboratories. Along with access to innovative project knowledge and technologies, students can master practical use of data obtained from space satellites.

The applications of NICoPA project technologies will help us manage the natural balance in the region.

NICoPA partners have already developed and modernised academic disciplines which have successfully been recognized at the institutional level and included: Precision agriculture, Soil science, Agrometeorology, Photogrammetry and remote sensing, Geodesy, Hygrometry and Hydrology, Geoinformation systems, Modern geodetic instruments and Climatology.

In 2021 and 2022 NICoPA demonstrated workshops were held for teachers and specialists of the Dashoguzsuvhojalyk Association. NICoPA-Plus signed agreements with the Dashoguzsuvhojalyk Association and the Rysgally Atan daň (agricultural enterprise).

– How NICoPA technologies will benefit to achieve sustainable increases in farm productivity and, at the same time, “will not harm” the nature of Turkmenistan?

O. Durdyev (TAU) ̶ To increase the agriculture productivity, NICoPA technologies will be used during mechanized works that “spares” the soil during its cultivation, as well as the precise and dosed application of fertilizers, chemicals and herbicides that do not lead to environmental damage, and help preserve the landscape and biological diversity of nature.

Kurbanov B. - Our students currently learn to develop and design a salinity map of TSAI educational facilities using QGIS software (Quantum Geo Information System) in the NICoPA virtual classroom.

As part of the NICOPA project, we also hope to purchase a meteorological station which will enable us to measure various agrometeorological parameters such as solar radiation, level of precipitation, average, maximum and minimum air temperatures, relative humidity, dew point, saturation vapor pressure deficit, average, maximum and minimum wind speed, reference evapotranspiration.

Kurbanov B. - We have already the first developments: our students have completed the work on the course projects: "Monitoring of the Khanhovuz reservoir", "Monitoring of the Turkmen lake Altyn Asyr", "Monitoring of the reservoir 15 Years of Independence", "Monitoring of the Sarykamysh Lake”, “Monitoring of the Saryyazy reservoir”. Such assessments have currently been carried out by students in order to calculate changes in the water surface area, the volume of reservoirs and other water characteristics.

The transition to a "green" economy is one of the priority areas of the economic policy of Turkmenistan which is based on innovative, resource-saving and environmentally friendly technologies

The recently adopted National Strategy for the Development of Renewable Energy in Turkmenistan until 2030, the National Climate Change Strategy and the National Forest Program of Turkmenistan are first steps in this direction. The assistance of Erasmus+ Program is highly important as a complementary tool in the country’s reform which enhances the further moving of Turkmenistan and the entire region to sustainable development.