The agriculture project will support innovative solutions to meet the needs of farmers

The Innovative projects are being selected from the pilot regions of Guba-Khachmaz and Ganja-Gazakh. The objective is to find innovative AAS solutions that meet the needs of farmers.

Ciaran Gannon, an international expert involved in the project, noted that tangible results will be achieved in the next six months:

"The project aims at developing a set of innovative projects that will be defined and implemented by a team of public and private sector actors working in a collaborative manner. The projects are based on producers' needs and demands and have been discussed with farmers as well as educational and research institutions.

The national coordinator of the project, Vugar Bashirov, noted that there is a need for innovations involving young farmers using information and communication technologies. Innovative solutions should ease farmers' financial difficulties, allow them to make informed decisions on their production and should facilitate group extension. The project is currently supporting a commodity-based platform that allows farmers to access affordable and relevant information to improve their productivity. 

"Commodity-based advisory platforms, a new agricultural advisory product, have been tested in pilot regions. Facilitators, some of them lead farmers, who will support farmers’ groups will be trained by international experts. The training will cater for facilitators in both project target regions, ” Vugar Bashirov added.

It should be noted that the Strengthening Agricultural Advisory Services Project is developing a new Advisory Service Model for the country, as well as a 5-year strategy and a 3-year plan to provide agrarian advisory services in the pilot regions.