This newsletter, Volume 13, highlights the most interesting accomplishments of FAO Afghanistan for the months of April - June 2018.

Cotton production substantially contributes to the GDP of Uzbekistan. It is produced under a state procurement policy, according to which farmers have to allocate half of their land for cotton, fulfill cotton output levels and sell the entire harvest of cotton to the state.

This handbook has been prepared for the training workshop on innovative methods of amelioration and use of salt-affected soils, which takes place in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in September 2017. This workshop is conducted within the framework of the Implementation Plan of the Eurasian Soil Partnership, which is a sub-regional affiliation of the Global Soil Partnership.

The partnership between FAO and Turkey has thrived since the establishment of the country office in 1982 and the Subregional<p></p>Office for Central Asia in 2007 in Ankara. Through the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme and FAO-Turkey Forestry Programme,<p></p>cooperation continues to prosper.

Cropland abandonment is globally widespread and has strong repercussions for regional
food security and the environment. Statistics suggest that one of the hotspots of abandoned cropland
is located in the drylands of the Aral Sea Basin (ASB), which covers parts of post-Soviet Central Asia,

This paper provides a brief synthesis of research conducted on gender in irrigation, and the tools and frameworks used in the past to promote improvement for women in on-farm agricultural water management. It then presents results from the pilot of the Gender in Irrigation Learning and Improvement Tool (GILIT) in locations in Malawi and Uzbekistan in 2015.

The rapidly growing population in Uzbekistan has put massive pressure on limited water resources, resulting in frequent water shortages. Irrigation is by far the major water use. Improving irrigation water use through the institutional change of establishing water consumer associations (WCAs) has been identified as a way to increase agricultural production and meet the food demand in the area.