Since April 2020, with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) regional project, Kyrgyzstan has been working on digitizing maps of the country’s agricultural land, including pasture resources.
At a meeting of experts from FAO and the state enterprise of the State Design Institute for land management Kyrgyzgiprozem in Bishkek earlier this year, various aspects of the digitization process were discussed, including standardization, maintaining the integrity and implementing a new GEODATA database structure, automating a number of functions that increase data entry productivity, and using special tools to control the quality of this process.
“The consistency and continuity of digital data in land use cartographic materials in the Kyrgyz Republic will be ensured by special software developed by FAO, in accordance with the support plan,” said Adnan Quereshi, FAO representative in Kyrgyzstan. According to him, the project simultaneously organizes training of Kyrgyzgiprozem specialists.
Until now, land use maps in Kyrgyzstan existed only on paper. Upon completion of the digitization process, which was scheduled for the end of 2020, agricultural specialists, researchers, government authorities, Aiyl Aimaks (village authorities), associations of land and water users, as well as farmers will be able to use digital maps of land use and monitor the use and condition of agricultural land in real time, as well as monitor the state of agricultural infrastructure.
The creation of a unified database with up-to-date and reliable information on agricultural land, including information on the location, condition and actual use of land in Kyrgyzstan, will also make it possible to plan agricultural production more effectively and obtain more accurate yield forecasts.
Funded by the FAO and GEF project “Integrated natural resources management in drought-prone and salt-affected agricultural production landscapes in Central Asia and Turkey”, this activity is in line with the Taza Koom (digital transformation program) initiative, which will support Kyrgyzstan transition from a resource-dependent to a knowledge-based economy by 2040, with the goal of improving people’s lives through the power of technology, digital infrastructure, and data.
“The Times Of Central Asia”
04.01.21