Rich in karst fields and scenic views, rural life in Canton 10 of Bosnia and...
Regional Initiatives
As economic reforms in the 1990s shifted land ownership into the hands of private smallholders, family farmers became the predominant source of agricultural production in the region. To address the absence of well-developed institutional support, FAO is implementing a Regional Initiative on Empowering Smallholders and Family Farms for Improved Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction.
While international trade policy is usually implemented at the border, adherence to food safety and quality standards concerns national food safety systems as well as food safety and quality control at the enterprise level. This means that a supportive policy environment for modern agrifood trade encompasses not only border policies, but also policies and institutions at the national and enterprise level.
The impact of climate change can already be felt on food production systems in the region, posing considerable challenges for agricultural production and food security. FAO is helping countries to manage their natural resources sustainably, while also coping with climate change and reducing the risk of disasters affecting agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Stories from the field
t is estimated that about half of the world’s obsolete pesticides can be found in the former Soviet Union, with many of them stored throughout Central Asia. As an important centre for agriculture, particularly cotton production, the subregion was a heavy user of pesticides. What remain are inappropriate burial sites, regulatory and management deficits, and other issues.
A one-day workshop today in Bishkek is part of a wider FAO effort to help overcome these shortcomings. This workshop will kick off a series of others in the participating countries – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey.
In Tajikistan, irrigation water is the bottleneck of crop production. And with water scarcity on the rise due to climate change-induced weather extremes, the situation is getting even worse, particularly in rural areas.
At this time of year, with the long dry periods and high temperatures of spring and summer to come, rural communities in parts of Tajikistan are facing increased fragility, water shortages, and intensification of land degradation and desertification.
Thirty Syrian workers start new jobs today at the Dağcıoğlu Baharat red pepper production factory in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. They were hired by the factory’s owner, Mehmet Dağcı, at the conclusion of a job fair in Kilis in mid-March.