The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth largest lake, but 60 years ago, local industry diverted the rivers feeding the lake to irrigate cotton fields. Today, the lake is a quarter of its former size, and scientists are using the region to test what can successfully grow in extreme environmental conditions. These days, the village of Karauzyak in western Uzbekistan is a dusty place.
Toderich is one of the lead researchers on a project using the former seabed and nearby river delta as a living laboratory. It’s part of a larger Japanese foreign aid and scientific collaboration initiative called SATREPS.
Kristina Toderich, an expert in biosaline agriculture at Tottori University in Japan, holds amaranth seeds. Toderich is working with the SATREPS team to develop a model for climate-smart agriculture in the region.The International Innovation Center for Aral Sea Basin grows cotton near the former large lake to find new varieties of the crop that require less water.Their ultimate goal is to revitalize a region that has been devastated by intensive agriculture.