Currently, water-saving technologies have been implemented on 2.6 million hectares of land in the country, constituting 60 percent of irrigated land. For comparison, this figure was only 19 thousand hectares until 2017. As a result, 2.5 billion cubic meters of water are saved annually.
The presentation discussed plans to install these technologies on an additional 930 thousand hectares of land by 2028, increasing the coverage to 3.5 million hectares — that is, to 80 percent of irrigated land. Through this, it is planned to save 3.5 billion cubic meters of water annually, improve the water supply for 300 thousand hectares of land, and create the possibility for irrigating repeat crops.
Furthermore, new mechanisms of state support for the implementation of water-saving technologies were proposed. These include, in particular, applying a 1.25 coefficient to subsidies in areas with unstable water supply, allocating 50 percent of subsidies in advance to farmers implementing the technology using their own funds, and planning partial coverage of credit interest for drip irrigation.
In addition, for the purpose of water accounting digitalization, "smart" water meters will be installed in rice and fish farms, and permission will be granted to use drones for control work. It was established that the misuse of water-saving technologies will be considered unauthorized use of water.
Special attention was also paid to the issue of personnel training: within the framework of the "School of Water Users" project this year, it is planned to improve the qualifications of 10 thousand farm managers and send 358 specialists abroad for study.
