More than 14 million adults, and some 4.7 million children in Europe and Central Asia...
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
A one-week training workshop on organic production, certification and marketing starts today in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, for selected extension specialists. It is part of an FAO project begun in April 2018 that helps public and private extension service providers in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan improve technical skills and enhance knowledge on modern crop management.
A similar workshop has already taken place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
“So how do you say ‘Farmer Field School’ in Turkish?” asked Marjon Fredrix, as she began her comprehensive presentation on the subject in Turkey’s Konya province.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Fredrix, an agricultural officer from FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, has travelled around the world to help promote Farmer Field Schools, but this was her first time in Turkey.
Wheat has a long history in Tajikistan; it has been grown here for more than a thousand years. The crop plays a crucial role in people’s well-being, particularly in rural areas.
With a workshop today in Dushanbe, a successful effort to improve small-scale farmers’ access to high-quality seeds concludes. It was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by Austria. This project, launched in 2012, was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Seed Association of Tajikistan.