A five-year strategy is being developed to strengthen agricultural advisory services in Azerbaijan

The project will also develop and recommend Agricultural Advisory Services models in two pilot regions - Ganja-Gazakh and Guba-Khachmaz. At the second steering committee meeting of the project, overall progress on the project implementation, the results of the regional agricultural mapping and survey assessment, challenges faced due to COVID 19 and work plan revisions were presented.

"It is very important that the works to be done within the "Strengthening of Agricultural Advisory Services" project, launched as part of the work of the Azerbaijani government for the development of the agricultural sector, will be sustainable and long-lasting," said Rainer Freund, Program Manager of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan. "The pilot agricultural services models to be developed under the project will be able to show what the future models will look like in the country," Mr. Freund emphasized.

Head of FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in Azerbaijan, Malak Cakmak, noted that the draft law on agricultural advisory services should benefit from the recommendations and results of the "Strengthening of Agricultural Advisory Services" project. "We should try to ensure that our recommendations on the implementation of agricultural advisory services are reflected in the legislation. If the Ministry of Agriculture benefits from the results and conclusions of the project, we can talk about the sustainability of our project," said Ms. Cakmak.

Yagub Guliyev, a leading specialist in the Public Information and International Relations Department of the Agrarian Science and Innovation Center, said that they expect the project to create a system for agricultural advisory services in Azerbaijan in accordance with local conditions. “One of the most important issues is to establish contacts between agrarian advisers in Azerbaijan. This will provide an effective agrarian advisory service," Yagub Guliyev said.

The results of surveys among more than 700 farmers in two pilot regions, as well as in Lankaran Economic Region, which was selected as the focus region were presented to the Steering Committee. It was noted that the models of agrarian advisory services in developed countries will be adapted to local conditions in accordance with the results of these surveys when they selected as pilot AAS models.

The meeting was concluded and the PSC members accepted the report on the project implementation and agreed on the recommended steps for the further project implementation.

Contact person: Afet Yagubova – communication specialist (Mob. +994502520247)