29 May 2025, Baku – Wheat rust diseases represent a significant threat to food security globally. In Azerbaijan, wheat is cultivated on approximately 600 000 hectares, with the country facing an annual import gap of over 1 million tonnes. Key challenges include drought, outdated irrigation practices and stripe rust disease. 

As part of activities of the FAO-CIMMYT Project Agreement funded by the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programme (FTPP), researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which supports wheat breeding and capacity development across Central Asia and the Caucasus, conducted a technical visit to Azerbaijan on 19–22 May 2025. 

During the visit, two experts from the CIMMYT-Türkiye office, Beyhan Akin (Lead, Winter Wheat - CIMMYT/IWWIP) and Emrah Koç (Program Associate - CIMMYT / IWWIP), met with national counterparts at the Research Institute of Crop Husbandry in Baku and the Jalilabad Regional Experimental Station. 

In Baku and Jalilabad, they delivered presentations to over 25 local professionals, highlighting key FAO-Türkiye project activities related to the management of wheat rust diseases. During these sessions, they emphasized the importance of integrating rust resistance, marker-assisted selection and speed breeding into Azerbaijan’s national wheat-breeding programme.

Hands-on training for the evaluation of germplasm and breeding materials were also conducted in both Baku and Jalilabad. In Jalilabad, where wheat covers 55 000 hectares of agricultural land, the team reviewed elite lines and varieties, such as Layagatli 80 and Gülüstan 100, originating from the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP), a joint programme of the Government of Türkiye, CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The team also discussed the impact of delayed wheat planting due to late cotton harvests and recommended better crop rotation strategies to optimize yields.

The visit reinforced the critical role of the FAO-CIMMYT partnership in building national expertise, promoting sustainable practices and introducing resilient wheat varieties tailored to Azerbaijan’s agroclimatic conditions. As climate challenges intensify, coordinated breeding efforts will remain vital to ensure food security and agricultural sustainability in the region.

The mission was organized as part of the activities of the project Strengthening regional collaboration and national capacities for management of wheat rust diseases (CAC-Rust – GCP/SEC/016/TUR), with the aim of strengthening collaboration between national rust disease experts and the wheat breeding programmes of Central Asian and Caucasian Countries, and the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP). 

About the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programmes

The objectives of the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programmes are to provide support to ensure food security, rural poverty reduction and sustainable forest management; combat desertification; and preserve ecosystems in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and other countries of mutual interest.

Established in 2007, the first phase of the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP) has benefited from trust fund contributions totalling USD 10 million, financed by the Government of Türkiye and represented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. During the first phase of the programme, 28 projects were implemented in 16 countries between 2009 and 2015.

In 2014, Türkiye and FAO commenced the second phase of the FTPP along with the first phase of the FAO-Türkiye Forestry Partnership Programme (FTFP) with additional funding of USD 20 million, bringing Türkiye’s total contribution to USD 30 million.

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