Geographically Mirzacho'l 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).[1] Efforts that began as early as the end of the 19th century gradually transformed the Mirzacho'l 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.[2] Three main canals constructed in the 1950s and the 1960s bring water to Mirzacho'l Steppe kolkhozes and sovkhozes. These are the north-south Central and Northern Canals and the east-west South Mirzacho'l Steppe Canal.