FAO workshop leads to understanding and designing better agricultural policies in post-Soviet countries

An FAO workshop will bring a closer understanding of agricultural policy distortions in eight post-Soviet countries. The event will cover a niche by providing a platform to present and discuss preliminary findings of an upcoming study on quantitative agricultural policy monitoring. Once published, this information can guide decision-makers, trade and agricultural policy experts, and academia in the long run.

Properly designed agricultural, market, and trade policies can have a positive effect on trade, farmers’ income, and food prices at the national and international level. Still, a comparable and continuous overview of what the factors distorting agricultural policies in post-Soviet countries, with the exception of Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, and Ukraine, was missing.

Baseline data was available at FAO, as the Organization has been monitoring agricultural and trade policy changes in these countries through annual reviews since 2014, which has been turned into a study in collaboration with the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia.

The latest study will contain information on the Nominal Rates of Protection, which measures the effect of agricultural policies on the market price of a commodity, as well as estimates of budgetary and other support measures, covering selected key agricultural commodities for the period 2005–2018/19.

“There is a clear demand of the respective governments for a continuation of quantitative policy monitoring to support evidence-based decision-making processes at country level,” said Iryna Kobuta, FAO economist at the Markets and Trade division. “Therefore, FAO decided to continue working towards institutionalizing agricultural policy monitoring in the region. This two-day virtual event is part of this.”

The countries monitored include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

At the workshop, representatives of the eight countries will learn in detail about relevant policy indicators and country results of the agricultural price distortions and budget transfers.

The event is part of FAO’s region-wide effort to support member countries in improving the agrifood trade policy environment for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises.

7 October 2020, Budapest, Hungary