FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

Digital solutions in apiculture: practices and experiences in Central Asia and beyond

Hybrid Event, 18/05/2023

09:00 – 17:30 UTC/GMT +5 hours

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Subregional Office for Central Asia is organizing a hybrid event, “Digital solutions in apiculture: practices and experiences in Central Asia and beyond,” on 18 May 2023.

Digital technologies  have recently started to transform apiculture and provide enormous benefits and opportunities  to beekeepers who adopt them. Today, however, most digital tools are still being tested for usability, and many are tailored for specific geographic areas. Furthermore, even though Central Asia is now increasingly well-covered by mobile and internet services, the potential of digital tools is not fully exploited by beekeepers and other stakeholders such as agronomists, foresters, and others because of an insufficient awareness of the potential benefits. FAO is at the cutting edge of promoting the application of innovations in apiculture, one important example of which is the apicultural geospatial information exchange system developed and being promoted in Uzbekistan with planned facilitation of the implementation of similar tools in Türkiye and Ukraine.

The event will showcase existing IT innovations relevant to beekeeping in Central Asia and worldwide, discuss their usefulness and applicability in the region, and identify any accelerators and inhibitors of wider adoption. To ensure  a wide range of perspectives, the event will hear from a wide range of  multi-stakeholders Speakers from the public sector, private sector; academia and research organizations; donors; NGOs; civil society, social movements and community-based organizations, inter-governmental and multi-lateral institutions will share their experiences and knowledge.