Golodnaya Steppe

Golodnaya Steppe (Uzbek: Mirzachül) is a loess plane of some 10,000 km² on the left bank of Syr Darya in Uzbekistan, extending from the mouth of Ferghana Valley on the border with Tajikistan to the east across Syrdarya Province and the northern part of Jizzakh Province to the west. To the south it is bounded by Turkestan Range. Geographically Golodnaya Steppe is a south-eastern extension of the Kyzyl Kum desert, with about 240 mm of annual precipitation and extreme continental climate (average temperatures from 28°C in July to −2°C in January). [ [http://bse.sci-lib.com/article011365.html "Big Soviet Encyclopedia", on-line edition, in Russian.] ] Efforts that began as early as the end of the 19th century gradually transformed the Golodnaya Steppe from a desert into an intensively irrigated agricultural area, today one of the major cotton and grain producing regions of Uzbekistan with around 500,000 hectares of irrigated land under cultivation. ["Agricultural of Uzbekistan 2006", statistical yearbook, Goskomstat Uzbekistana, Tashkent, 2007.] Three main canals constructed in the 1950s and the 1960s bring water to Golodnaya Steppe farms. These are the north-south Central and Northern Canals and the east-west South Golodnaya Steppe Canal. Guliston and Yangier, both in Syrdarya Province, are the main population centers in Golodnaya Steppe.

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