Press Release

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) together with Agrarco LLC implements support measures for hazelnut farmers.

30 November 2022

As part of the FAO-Agrarco LLC partnership agreement, which has established a framework for the implementation of activities related to the strategic capacity building of farmers and investigation of sustainable bioenergy options in the hazelnut value chain, new initiatives for supporting hazelnut producers from the regions of Zagatala, Balakan, Gakh, Oghuz, Gabala and Khachmaz were implemented.

The activities are carried out within the framework of the project "Acceleration of efficiency and sustainability in the field of hazelnut cultivation in Azerbaijan - UTF/AZE/016/AZE".

The cooperation between FAO and Agrarco LLC focuses on joining efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by securing private sector partnership and know-how: (i) to reach out to larger number of farmers including smallholders to support the development of their capacity and contribute to the further development of the agricultural and food production systems in the country and; (ii) increased co-financing opportunity to access large-scale development funds, in particular GCF is one of the main activities of the partnership.

Smallholder farmers, with poor access to the services, got access to the technological innovations and processes applied by one of the lead agribusiness companies in agricultural production. Mutual exchange of experiences supported the capacity building and awareness raising of the participants.

During the 3 days’ hands-on training, the participants were provided with detailed information about the activities of Agrarco LLC. The Company demonstrated winter pruning and fungicide spraying in its own orchards and highlighted the importance of holding winter activities and practical spraying with fungicides for sixty demonstration site owners operating in the above-mentioned target regions. Moreover, the preparation process of compost from hazelnut husk was demonstrated with the participation of an international expert of FAO and the importance of applying Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) was reiterated during the practical traning sessions.

On the field days, the participants were also informed about the importance of proper organization of the collection and post-harvest drying and storage processes for nuts.

Planning of new activities under the signed agreement will be conducted during the next meeting of the working group.