Governmental Decree No. 450 validating State Program on development of new irrigated land and rehabilitation of land withdrawn from agricultural turnover in the Republic of Tajikistan for the period of 2012-2020.

State Program on development of new irrigated land and rehabilitation of land withdrawn from agricultural turnover in the Republic of Tajikistan for the period of 2012-2020 was elaborated with a view of increase of efficiency of agricultural production of the country, provision of rural population with jobs and on this basis improvement of living standards of citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan. Lack of irrigated area is connected with difficult relief-geographical conditions. Agricultural lands make up 32.1 percent of the country's territory. Comparative analysis of the prospective development, population size and current rates of development of new lands indicates that by 2025 the specific area of irrigated land will be reduced to 0.08 hectares per capita. Taking into account the salinization of some irrigated lands, unacceptable groundwater level, water deficit in the areas of machine irrigation, construction of urban, rural and industrial facilities at the expense of irrigated land, the specific availability of irrigated land in the country by 2025 may decrease to 0.06 hectares per capita. Food security depends not only on the total number of irrigated land, but also on their fertility. However, in the country as a whole, the stock of necessary irrigated fields remains a decisive factor. One of the main reasons for the withdrawal of most of these lands from agricultural turnover was the deterioration of hydraulic structures (waterworks) and on-farm pumping stations on the balance sheet of reformed farms. For many years, the reformed farms have not been monitoring and repairing hydraulic structures, irrigation and drainage networks. Along with the restoration of land withdrawn from agricultural turnover, the development of new irrigated land is of strategic importance for the development of agriculture. In proportion to the growth of Tajikistan's population, the development of new land should be carried out annually on thousands of hectares. However, due to the lack of funds, the Program provides for a logically possible number of new irrigated areas development.
The implementation of this Program will make it possible to attract 26690 hectares of new irrigated land, including 3890 hectares at the expense of the state budget, 15000 hectares at the expense of investment state projects and restoration of 7800 hectares in agricultural turnover, in general, to involve 26690 hectares of land into agricultural production. It should be noted that each hectare of irrigated land, based on agricultural crops and areas of its location, will provide jobs from 4 to 8 people. On average, the implementation of the Program will create more than 160,000 new jobs in rural areas of the country.