Eight thousand Uzbekistan farmers cultivating 360,000 hectares are using water-accounting tools to improve water distribution making further expansion a national priority for 2020-2030
An innovative water-measurement and accounting tool developed and tested by WLE/IWMI and partners, "smart sticks", have proven successful in improving water accounting in Uzbekistan irrigation associations. They enable associations to automatically record how much water has been delivered to which farmers. This accurate, transparent and easy-to-use tool resolves conflicts over water distribution and incentivizes farmers to pay irrigation fees. As a result, the technology was included among priority investments in the Agricultural Development Strategy of Uzbekistan for 2020-2030.