TASHKENT, 29 October 2021 г. – Today the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Uzbekistan together with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan held a working meeting to consider a new project funded by the European Union “Supporting an inclusive transition to a “green” economy in the Agri-food sector and development of a “climate-smart” Uzbek Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation System”. The goals, objectives, and approaches to project management during 4 years of its implementation were discussed after the project was presented to a wide range of national and international partners involved in the development of the agrarian sector of the country. The partners involved in the project implementation gained better understanding of their roles, functions and responsibilities including reporting and communication issues.

Mr. Francois Begeot, Head of Cooperation Unit of the European Union Delegation in Uzbekistan, said “This project is quite challenging because of a new initiative to support the smart development and eco-friendly agri-food sector in rural regions. Development of the agricultural sector will promote improving people livelihood and ensuring food security across the country”.

While supporting the initiative of the Government of Uzbekistan on development and implementation of new Uzbek Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation System (UAKIS), the project is aimed to assist in phased and knowledge-based development and operationalization of policies, and regulatory framework enabling the promotion of “green” investments across the agri-food value chains.

“Now the country is making first steps towards transition to the modern principles of green agricultural production. An important step towards including climate change considerations across national policy areas was the adoption of the Strategy for the transition of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the “green” economy for 2019-2030. We believe that the project will make a worthy contribution to support the government's efforts towards modern agriculture” – noted in her welcoming remarks Doina Munteanu, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Uzbekistan.

Alisher Shukurov, Adviser to the Minister, Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, outlined that the Ministry of Agriculture appreciates the strategic partnership with the European Union and UNDP and noted - “We expect that the system of agricultural knowledge and innovations will serve not only the Ministry of agriculture but all stakeholders, research institutes and farmers and agrobusiness representatives first of all. This will the platform to support the agricultural stakeholders, knowledge sharing and for providing the advisory service”.

The project implementation plan which includes institutional capacity development of key players in agriculture sector, partnership development with leading European Institutes as well as realization of innovative projects at ‘farm level’, targeting primarily smallholder and family farmers, farmer cooperatives, and micro-agri-business was presented. It is expected that innovative projects will allow piloting and demonstrating ways of achieving mitigation, adaptation and where applicable, post COVID-19 “green” transformational recovery pathways.