The topic of the 2^nd TWSL was dedicated to “Agricultural Water Management in Central Asia - A Regional Perspective”. Lectures started with the opening note from Dr Abror Gafurov, CAWa Green project leader and a scientist at GFZ Potsdam, followed by Prof. Uktam Umurzakov from Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers in Uzbekistan and Mr Ochilov from the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Germany.

The first talk was given by Prof Dr Christopher Conrad who is a professor of Geoecology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He is working on many projects related to Agriculture and water management and has vast experience in research on land and water use in the Aral Sea basin. Prof Conrad gave a talk on “Cropping Intensity in the Aral Sea Basin and Its Dependency from the Runoff Formation”.

Dr Maksud Bekchanov who is a Research Associate at Uni Hamburg gave a second talk on “Investment needs and energy use options for irrigation water use efficiency improvements and sustainable food system transition in Central Asia”. Dr Bekchanov is interested in integrated economic-environmental-social assessments of water, land, waste, energy and climate systems and his current research focuses on implementing dynamic climate-energy-economic models to analyze key drivers and investments for effective decarbonization pathways at the global scale.

Lectures attracted 60 participants from different countries who engaged in a lively discussion after both talks. Participants had a choice to listen to the talks and participate in the discussion in both English and Russian language.

Discussions opened a question on how to bridge a gap between scientists and policymakers, or how to best implement vital scientific results into the regional policymaking. This and other pressing topics such as climate change, monitoring and digitization of the water sector will be tackled in upcoming editions of Tashkent Water Security Lectures.