Turkmenistan joins FAO projects on food loss and waste, fisheries, and wheat rust disease

Turkmenistan officially endorsed a set of projects on reducing food loss and waste, improving fisheries and aquaculture management, and increasing fungal resistance of wheat, funded by the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture.

Viorel Gutu, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Central Asia and Representative in Turkey, and Bayramdurdyyev Magtymguly, Minister of Agriculture and Environment Protection of Turkmenistan, virtually signed the projects on behalf of FAO and the Government of Turkmenistan, respectively.

“This will provide a framework for FAO and the country to jointly strive for improvements in areas of common interest with the ultimate goal of achieving food security and combating rural poverty,” noted Viorel Gutu on the occasion.

The fisheries project, called FISHCap, aims to increase countries’ capacities for the sustainable exploitation, management, and protection of natural resources through the sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture with a budget of USD 1 million through 2022.

The second project targets the reduction of food loss and waste at both national and regional levels through the implementation of policy, strategy, and investment programmes, knowledge sharing on mitigating losses in production and retail, and awareness raising among consumers. The project has a budget of USD 1.5 million.

Finally, the third project is aimed at strengthening regional collaboration and national capacities for management of wheat rust diseases and resistance breeding in Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC-Rust). This will be achieved by improving productivity and the resilience of wheat production – a staple in Central Asian countries – against emerging wheat rust epidemics and races.

The official name of the signed projects are: “Reduction of food loss and waste in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Turkey;” “Strengthening regional collaboration and national capacities for management of wheat rust diseases and resistance breeding in Central Asia and the Caucasus;” and “Capacity building for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture management in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.”

During the first phase of the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme, which ran between 2009 and 2015 in a total of 16 countries, Turkmenistan participated in eight of the 28 projects.

About the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme

The objectives of the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programmes are to provide support to ensure food security, rural poverty reduction, and sustainable forest management, combat desertification, and preserve ecosystems in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and beyond.

Established in 2007, the first phase of the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture has benefited from trust fund contributions totalling USD 10 million, financed by the Government of Turkey and represented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. In 2014, Turkey and FAO commenced the second phase along with the first phase of the FAO-Turkey Forestry Partnership Programme with an additional fund of USD 20 million, bringing Turkey’s total contribution to USD 30 million.

2 December 2020, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan