Agriculture is the largest employer in Azerbaijan. The varied climate allows cultivation of a wide variety of crops, ranging from peaches to almonds and from rice to cotton. Nonetheless, farming is concentrated in central Azerbaijan along the Kura and Araxes rivers, where the land is fertile.

Plant breeding activities began in Azerbaijan in the late 1920s. Nevertheless Azerbaijan’s plant breeding capacities were highly affected by the difficulties of the transition period following the Soviet Union’s disintegration and by the turmoil of the Karabakh war up to 1994.

Plant breeding activities are carrying out by nine organizations, all public. The total number of the breeders and the allocated budget decreased drastically after disintegration of the Soviet Union. Better trends appear with the general improvement of the economy since 2005.

The institutions are specialized by crops. Considered as an important breeding priority, small grain crops occupy a relatively large area (600,000 ha). With the exception of the Research Institute (RI) of Genetic Resources, most of the resources of the breeding programs are used for line development and evaluation. The environment priorities depend on the research centres. Some (mostly permanent crops) raised priority of biotic stresses, because farmers don’t apply pesticides and fungicides in sufficient amounts. Some of the other focuses more on abiotic stresses due to malfunctioning irrigation system and overall warming of the climate.

The inadequate availability of laboratory infrastructure to carry out experiments using advanced plant breeding techniques and the lack of financial resources to carry out field and laboratory experiments are the most limiting factors to Azerbaijan plant breeding programmes’ success.

Research and education institutes with activities in plant breeding

	Azerbaijani Research Institute of Farming No Website available Azerbaijani RI of Farming is a public sector research institution. It is part of the Agrarian Science Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. The institute has been involved in cereal crop breeding research since 1925 and concentrates on breeding of wheat, barley, maize, chickpea and tobacco. It began using biotechnology almost 15 years ago.
	Azerbaijani Research Institute of Vegetable Production No Website available RI of Vegetable Production is a public research institution, which is part of the Agrarian Science Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. Involved in crop breeding for 40 years, it is a major breeding centre for vegetables (tomato, cucumber, eggplant, pepper, melons, onion, etc) and potato in Azerbaijan. It has five field research stations that cover the range of variability of vegetable growing regions of the country.
	Radjebly Research Institute of Horticulture and Subtropical Plants No Website available RI of Horticulture and Subtropical Plants is a public research institution, which is part of the Agrarian Science Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. Involved in crop breeding for 60 years, it is a major breeding centre for seed and stone fruits, nuts, berries, citrus, tea and subtropical fruits in Azerbaijan. It has six field research stations that cover the range of variability of fruit growing regions of the country.
	Research Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking No Website available RI of Viticulture and Winemaking is a public research institution, which is part of the Agrarian Science Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. Involved in crop breeding for 30 years, it is a major breeding centre for grapes in Azerbaijan. It has three field research stations to cover all variability of grape growing regions of the country.
	Research Institute of Feed, Meadows and Pastures No Website available RI of Feed, Meadows and Pastures is a public research institution, which is part of the Agrarian Science Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. Involved in crop breeding for 36 years, it is a major breeding centre for forages (mostly legumes and also grasses in the nearest past) and oilseeds (soybean) in Azerbaijan. It has five field research stations in different regions of the country.
	Husseinov Research Institute of Sericulture No Website available RI of Sericulture is a public research institute, which is part of the Agrarian Science Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. It has been involved in mulberry breeding for 70 years and is the only mulberry research centre in Azerbaijan. The institute plants its trials at two field stations.
	Research Institute of Cotton Production No Website available RI of Cotton Production is a public research institute, which is part of the Agrarian Science Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. It has been involved in cotton breeding for 80 years and is the only fibber crop research centre in Azerbaijan. The institute conducts its research with help of three field stations.
	Azerbaijani Agricultural Academy No Website available The Azerbaijani Agricultural Academy is a public sector university and is part of the Ministry of Education and Science, but its research agenda is coordinated with the Agrarian Science centre of the Ministry of agriculture of Azerbaijan. It has been involved in crop breeding and biotechnology for 48 and 15 years, respectively.
	Research Institute of Genetic Resources No Website available RI of Genetic Resources is a public research institution, which is presently part of the National Academy of Sciences. The institute was founded in 2003. Its main purpose is to maintain the national bank of genetic resources. The institute works on a wide range crop species: wheat, maize, sorghum/millet, barley, oilseeds, cotton, tuber/root crops, forages, grain legumes, fruits/vegetables and medicinal plants.

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Information by David Bedoshvili (2006) - Information based on the Azerbaijan's full report from the PBBC survey.
Last revised 22-07-2009, GIPB