Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan held the session on 21 January 2011 to discuss social-economic development in 2010 and important priorities of economic programme in 2011.

President Islam Karimov said that reclamation conditions of lands are improving due to implementation of wide-scale programme.

He said that over 150 billion soums were spend to realization of land-reclamation projects, which allowed to construct and reconstruct 724 km collector-drainage networks, 208 soil-reclamation wells, 14,000 collector-drainage systems were repaired and 335 units of modern land-reclamation equipment were purchased.

Over US$62 mllion of resources f international financial institutions were attracted to rehabilitate irrigation and land-reclamation establishments in Kashkadarya, Bukhara, Navoi, Surkhandarya, Syrdarya, Jizzakh region, in Central Ferghana and Karakalpakstan in 2010.

President said that reclamation condition of 260,000 hectares of irrigated lands were improved, which will create good foundation for rich crop.

Islam Karimov said the country will increase investment volume to land-reclamation and increase soil productivity. He said that it is necessary to introduce order on effective and targeted use of land resources and introduce modern technologies.

Uzbek leader said that special attention should be paid to soil productivity. He said that despite great works, reclamation conditions of irrigated lands concerns. He said that 49% of irrigated lands are salted, of which 18% are heavily and medium salted land and over 23% are lands with less yield. He said that reclamation conditions are not satisfactory in Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Bukhara, Jizzakh, Ferghana and other regions.