Bilateral meeting with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Tajikistan – H.E. Nigina Anvari

Rome – The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and Her Excellency Nigina Anvari, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Tajikistan, met to discuss ways to enhance collaboration between FAO and Tajikistan.

The Deputy Minister congratulated the Director-General on the re-election, stating that it reflects the hard work done during the previous four years. The Director-General thanked the Deputy Minister and said that all FAO Members can count on his full support.

The Deputy Ministry noted that Tajikistan has experienced strong economic performance over the last decade. Despite significant progress achieved, due to its high dependency on migrant remittances, and an undiversified economy and export base, Tajikistan remains vulnerable to external shocks. The Deputy Minister stated that FAO’s work in assisting of implementation of the second phase of Tajikistan’s agricultural reforms is essential for the country. She emphasized that there is a great need for FAO’s expertise to attract international funds to strengthen agricultural resilience and transition the sector to a more productive, inclusive and climate-resilient model. She also added that the country has initiated the nomination process for designating the Hisor Valley as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) with the help of FAO.  

The FAO Director-General pointed out that country has a great potential in agriculture, and they should use FAO’s technical expertise to benefit from it and then to share its experience with other countries. The Deputy Minister agreed and added that Tajikistan was the first country in Central Asia to join the FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative and recently Tajikistan had also joined the 1000 Digital Villages Initiative. Finally, the Deputy Minister briefed the Director-General on the President’s strategy on gender promotion in the country’s governing bodies, and said she was pleased to see high female representation among the Core Leadership of FAO.