Wheat is major crop in dryland agriculture of Central Asia. In most cases both spring wheat and winter wheat are grown in rotation with summer fallow. Studies were conducted in order to identify alternative crops which possibly could replace part of summer fallow and part of wheat area. | Turk J Agric For 29 (2005) 143-150 © TÜB‹TAK Role of Wheat in Diversified Cropping Systems in Dryland Agriculture of Central Asia Mekhlis SULEIMENOV1,*, Kanat AKHMETOV2, Zheksembay KASKARBAYEV2, Aitkalym KIREYEV3, Lyudmila MARTYNOVA4, Rakhim MEDEUBAYEV5 1 ICARDA-CAC, Tashkent, Uzbekistan 2 Scientific Production Center of Grain farming, Shortandy, Akmola, Kazakhstan 3 Scientific Production Center of Cropping Systems, Almalybak, Almaty, Kazakhstan 4 Research Institute of Cropping Systems, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 5 Krasniy Vodopad breeding station, Shymkent, Kazakhstan Received: Abstract: Wheat is major crop in dryland agriculture of Central Asia. In most cases both spring wheat and winter wheat are grown in rotation with summer fallow. Studies were conducted in order to identify alternative crops which possibly could replace part of summer fallow and part of wheat area. Summer fallow was found inefficient practice for soil moisture accumulation in semiarid steppes of northern and southern Kazakhstan as well as in Kyrgyzstan. Many alternative crops were identified in all zones of dryland farming providing better incomes to farmers than wheat. Most important are food legumes as field pea, chickpea, lentil, oilseeds as safflower and mustard, small grains as buckwheat and millet . Food legumes and alfalfa are also very important for sustainability of production systems. Key Words: Dryland, crop rotation, crop diversification, summer fallow Introduction Wheat is major crop in dryland agriculture and one of two major crops in irrigated agriculture of Central Asia. Dryland agriculture is major production system in Kazakhstan, while in the rest of the region agriculture is predominantly irrigated. In the northern Kazakhstan spring wheat is major crop grown traditionally in summer fallow-small grains programs, in the rest of the region winter wheat is cultivated in fallow based rotations in dryland and in cotton-wheat programs under irrigation. During a .
