A two-day conference on efficient production and marketing of Georgian fruits and berries concludes today in Tbilisi. Attracting producers from Georgia, the event focused on helping local growers take advantage of numerous investment and market opportunities, both locally and internationally, by sharing best practices in apple, pear and berry production,...

Because every facet of agricultural activity depends on the weather, unpredictable weather patterns caused by climate change and other meteorological phenomena have increased the need for precise weather data. With careful planning and research, agrometeorology can help farmers overcome chaotic weather and meet the world’s demand for food and other agricultural...

Women are key actors and caretakers of household food security, particularly in rural areas of Tajikistan. They are largely responsible for preparing meals, carrying drinking water, rationing food and caring for their children’s health. At the same time, they produce food, manage natural resources and make income to support their...

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...

The Smallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait of the ESA Small Family Farms Team is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers, bringing out the characteristics of family farms across the world. It is designed in such a way that differences between countries and regions can be...

Senior staff members of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and its Statistics Agency are in Georgia now to meet with representatives of the National Statistics Office and the Ministry of Agriculture in Georgia. They are on a five-day study tour, sharing experiences on agriculture reforms, learning about implementation of agricultural policies,...

Although only 5 percent of Tajikistan's land area is farmable due to the country's mountainous geography, agriculture accounts for 53 percent of total employment. Among those households that engage in agriculture, almost 90 percent can be classified as small family farms. With 0.2 hectares on average, Tajikistan's smallholders operate on...

Poor rural people are often excluded from markets and do not benefit from tailored technologies and rural advisory services. These constraints lower their agricultural productivity, perpetuating poverty and hunger. To achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, agriculture needs to become more inclusive, sustainable and productive. FAO helps countries meet...

Tajikistan’s roughly 3.8 million hectares of pasture – almost 29 percent of its total land area – feed the country’s meat-producing livestock. But these natural resources, particularly year-round pastures near villages, are being depleted and degraded. Since 2013, FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have been working with...

While there has been an unprecedented achievement in poverty reduction in the last three decades, eradicating extreme poverty and halving poverty by 2030 are still two of our greatest challenges. Today, about 767 million people continue to live in extreme poverty. Roughly, two thirds of the extreme poor live in...

Quinoa, once a staple food of only the indigenous people in the Andes, has become a darling of food aficionados around the world in recent years. So popular it has grown that even some fast food restaurant chains have now dishes and salads with it on their menus. Its exceptional...

Despite serious influences of climate change on food security and farm income, there is insufficient research in Central Asia on the impact of climate change on agro-ecosystems, farm incomes, and analysis of the potential adaptation strategies. There is very limited use of integrated assessments critical for analyzing environmental, economic and...

The power of statistics to support change cannot be overstated. In Tajikistan, no one knows this better than the State Agency for Statistics. High-level managers and professional statisticians from the Agency recently completed FAO training on a new methodology for surveying the country’s family farms. The practical training – conducted in...

Cooperatives are a relatively recent business model, dating back only to the 1840s, but their short history has been full of twists and turns. Today, in countries once part of the Soviet Union, cooperatives operate under a wide variety of laws, regulations and tax codes. Now those laws, civil codes and...

If there’s one thing wheat farmers agree on, it is the importance of sowing high-quality seeds. More than 50 farmers in Tajikistan last week attended an FAO field day where new wheat varieties were introduced – part of a project to improve access to high-quality seeds by producing them right...

Irrigation systems in Tajikistan – and the ways in which they are managed – should see improvement under a two-year FAO project just getting under way here. Valued at US$ 468,000, the new project is aimed at modernizing irrigation systems and increasing agricultural productivity in a country that is highly dependent...

The families of migrants who have left Tajikistan in search of work abroad will be an important focus of a new FAO project set to get under way here soon. The three-year project, entitled “Developing Capacity for Strengthening Food Security and Nutrition in Selected Countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia”...

This publication is a collection of articles written by economists, sociologists, and gender specialists and practitioners from twelve post-Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. It is unique in its effort to review and analyze the issues that are at the intersection of gender equality, social protection...

Greater efficiency and sustainability in Tajikistan’s agriculture sector are the focus of a new cooperation agreement between FAO and the Government of Tajikistan. The FAO Country Programming Framework for Tajikistan, signed by both parties this week, outlines three main areas of work for the period 2016-2017: food and nutrition security and...

As farmers increasingly plant modern varieties of wheat, traditional wheat landraces are in decline. Yet the genetic diversity found in these hardy traditional varieties could be crucial for the future of wheat production. A new series of publications from FAO introduces wheat landraces in the Central Asia sub region, starting with...