Representatives of Center for hydrometeorology service under the Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management of Uzbekistan, State Committee on Nature Protection, NGOs and others participated at the seminar.

Climate change is negative process, which also impacts Central Asia. It was noted that Central Asian region in recent years suffer from growth of temperature and drought. Climate change creates serious challenges to the countries, which have drought climate, floods, land degradations, etc.

Drought is dominating natural adversities in Uzbekistan on area coverage and scale of negative impact. According to the assessments, agriculture sector is the most vulnerable sector of Uzbekistan’s economy, which means that food safety of Uzbekistan is in danger. Share of population, living in territories, suffered from drought makes up 76.3%.

Drought is natural occurrence, related to water deficit, which can occur in various climate zones and cause huge damage. The drought has several categories. Scale of drought and its severity require to adopt measures on mitigating its consequences. One of tools of complex measures on mitigation of drought consequences is climate service to prevent drought.

Many countries already created Drought Monitoring Center. For example, such services are operating in the USA, Slovenia, etc. Uzbekistan created National Drought Monitoring Center under the Center for hydrometeorology service in 2009, which coordinate and consult bodies on readiness to drought, monitor, prevent and mitigate consequences of drought.

Center uses scientific base on studying drought to help interested sides on various aspects of drought and to prevent it.

During the seminar, the participants studied experience of the Center on drought management in Southern-Eastern Europe, located in Slovenia, their best practices on management of drought.

Specialists discussed practices on monitoring and forecasting drought with use of satellite information and use of these methods in Uzbekistan. Perspectives of cooperation of the Uzbek Center and the Center on drought management in Southern-Eastern Europe were also discussed.