In Central Asia, proper pesticide lifecycle management has been overlooked in past years due to gaps in the legal frameworks and a lack of experience and skill among the institutions and stakeholders responsible for managing pesticides. As a legacy of the former Soviet Union, it is estimated that around half of the global stocks of obsolete pesticides are in this region. The first week of December calls attention to proper pesticide use and soil health, with the International No Pesticide Use Day (3 December) and World Soil Day (5 December). 

The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union hosted an event in Brussels this week to present best practices and initiatives carried out by the Regional Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for Europe and Central Asia, located in Budapest. The conference marked the opening of a photo exhibit, offering a visual tour of FAO’s work in the region. The event discussed ways to increase resilience and competitiveness of the food and agriculture sectors of Europe and Central Asia, with a particular emphasis on FAO’s work in the Western Balkans, green agriculture, sustainable diets, preventing food loss and waste, resilience against natural disasters, and digital agriculture.

The growing recognition of sustainable agrifood systems in addressing climate change is reflected in international negotiations at the recent Conferences of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The day dedicated to Food, Agriculture and Water on 19 November 2024 at COP29 highlights this intensified focus. The day opened with the launch of the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers (Harmoniya Initiative), a collaboration between the COP29 Presidency and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) brought a critical message to the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan: increased investment in agrifood systems is essential to address the climate crisis. Over the two weeks of the international meeting and through events, initiatives and several publications, FAO emphasized that agrifood systems hold the solutions to tackling major interlinked challenges facing people and the planet, including climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, food insecurity, and poverty.

Avian influenza, often referred to as bird flu, is a major transboundary disease with zoonotic potential. By 2024, more than 800 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus were reported across 23 countries. The disease is present and actively spreading across Europe as well. While avian influenza viruses do not presently transmit easily between humans, continued circulation in poultry could lead to mutations that increase human-to-human transmissibility. In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is offering online training to equip European veterinarians, who are the first responders, with the skills needed to detect and react to this cross-species virus, helping to mitigate severe health impacts on both animals and people.

Five countries in Europe and Central Asia became better prepared to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in their agrifood systems through support of a project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the Russian Federation. Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan took initial actions on AMR in the agrifood sectors, with special emphasis on the livestock sector, and implemented measures to reduce the development and spread of AMR.

The agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina faces significant gender disparities. Women account for nearly half (49 percent) of the rural population and 20 percent of employed women work in the agriculture sector, yet only 18 percent of farms are managed by women and only 38 percent of women own or have part-ownership of agricultural land. Strengthening capacities of women from rural areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina and supporting agriculture and rural development policies with an emphasis on gender equality are among the main goals of the project "Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas," implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN Women and financed by Sweden.

Albania, with United Nations partners, has launched a groundbreaking joint programme leveraging digitalization to advance sustainability goals with systemic interventions particularly targeted at smallholder farmers.  

The “Digital Agriculture and Rural Transformation" (DART), is a three-year (2024—2027) programme financed by the Digital Transformation Window call of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Fund with a total budget of USD 3.3 million.

Raised with livestock, Mahammad and his community have long depended on animals as their main source of income. Moving around together solidified bonds among herding families, fostering collaboration that laid the foundation for their future cooperative. Together, they established Eko-Süd (Eco-Milk), chaired by Mahammad, with the aim of maximizing the production of milk and other dairy products.

In 2023, a new chapter began for Eco-Milk when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Government of Azerbaijan, provided Mahammad’s cooperative with essential tools, including feed grinders, a dairy processing facility and generators. These tools made basic tasks much easier and faster, allowing the cooperative to focus on what truly matters: producing high-quality milk and dairy products for their community.

In the village of Koram, around 150 kilometers east of Almaty in Kazakhstan, Aishagul's life has been marked by her husband’s debilitating injury and the severe illnesses of her elderly parents-in-law.A turning point came when Aishagul's sister-in-law, aware of her dire situation, introduced her to a greenhouse harvesting training programme. This initiative was part of the broader Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project, known as CACILM-2, and funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).