Digital Villages in Uzbekistan

Novkent and Yuksalish, situated side-by-side in Uzbekistan's Fergana Valley, are a close-knit community covering an area of 280 hectares, with more than 1000 households that actively contribute to their growth.

Agriculture plays a pivotal role in community life, with the majority of smallholder farmers specializing in the cultivation of raspberries, tomatoes, lemons and vegetables. Several households engage in greenhouse agriculture, typically behind their houses, and this number is steadily increasing.  

Challenges

This is a primary concern for the community, as 80–90 percent of the residents have reported significant water scarcity issues, exacerbated by the lack of efficient water storage opportunities. The unpredictability of the water supply hampers not just daily life, but also crucial farming operations.

Many farmers continue to rely on dated farming practices, leading them to plant similar crops year after year. The limited exchange of knowledge between the farmers of both communities and professional agronomists creates an environment in which practices are stunted.

Farmers in both villages frequently use smartphones, however, their limited digital skills ensure their usage is confined to a few applications, primarily social media platforms. As such, the use of digital technologies, particularly in agriculture, remains limited.

Women play a significant role in farming, but are limited by outdated technologies, leading to exhausting physical tasks. Women predominantly shoulder such labour-intensive tasks as land tilling, chemical spraying, and manual pollination and watering, highlighting a need for more user-friendly equipment.

Knowledge sharing among farmers is limited to close circles, restricting the dissemination of different farming techniques and experiences. Furthermore, there are no advisory services available in the village, leaving farmers without guidance on plant diseases.

Yuksalish grapples with inconsistent and slower internet connectivity, highlighting a digital infrastructure disparity between the neighbouring village Novkent, which enjoys higher quality internet connectivity, due to recent government-led fiber optic installations.

DVI interventions

Smart IoT sensors for greenhouse management

High-quality yet low-cost smart sensors based on Internet-of-Things (IoT) and open source have been piloted in greenhouses in Novkent and Fergana Valley. The sensors provide information on temperature, light, humidity and soil moisture in the greenhouse, allowing farmers to make smart and data-driven decisions.

Youth innovation programme

Young local people are mobilized through dedicated coding training (DVI camp) and by an innovation challenge (Hack4DigitalVillages), encouraging them to develop digital innovations that meet the needs of the rural communities together with mentors and farmers.

Three farmers look at the phone while in their garden

DVI hub

Centralized platform for information, resources and community engagement through which farmers gain access to timely and relevant agricultural insights and continuous learning, facilitating peer-to-peer exchanges of knowledge through dedicated YouTube and Telegram channels.

Living labs

Regular physical or virtual meetings that bring together rural communities and a diverse range of stakeholders (farm advisors, agronomists, university professors, local administration representatives, private sector companies, etc.) to collaborate in the identification and testing of innovative solutions that address the issues affecting the community.

DVI twinning with Hisor valley (Tajikistan)

Formal cooperation with Lolazor, pilot Digital Village of Tajikistan, to exchange insights into agricultural best practices, share knowledge on technology utilization, enhance digital literacy and skills, and more. As part of the Digital Villages Twinning programme, Fergana State University and Tajik Agrarian University also signed a Memorandum-of-Understanding (MoU).

Capacity development programme

Training programme aimed at providing farmers with essential digital and entrepreneurial skills, including training in digital literacy, social media management and e-commerce strategies with a view to enhancing their digital skills, business operations and market reach.

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