A regional virtual workshop marked the launch of an FAO project that aims to increase the effectiveness of small ruminant production and reduce greenhouse gas emission intensity. Funded by Turkey, the project is designed to increase knowledge on efficient small ruminant production systems in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan...

Like many other economies in transition, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan face the dual challenge of promoting development and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and ruminant systems are central for achieving both goals. Given the important economic, nutritional and environmental roles that ruminant systems play in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,...

In this age of restricted travel, when webinars have taken the place of conferences, at first, I missed face-to-face meetings a lot. But virtual events do allow one to get exposed to far more ideas than before.

Although the once booming tea industries in Azerbaijan and Georgia have long been in decline, interest in revitalizing the sector is gaining steam in both countries. Tea has a long tradition in Azerbaijan and Georgia, where tea has been produced since the 19th century. The two countries became the main tea...

This report is the outcome of the Digital Excellence in Agriculture: FAO-ITU regional contest on good practices advancing digital agriculture in Europe and Central Asia, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Office for Europe and Central Asia and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Offices...

This technical note aims to provide United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region with a common understanding of sustainable food systems. This technical note is an additional resource for UNCTs and complements existing guidance for United Nations Common Country Analyses (CCAs) and United Nations...

Farmers and media practitioners – both need access to reliable sources of information to do their work well. Farmers must have appropriate information and opportunities to learn so that they can make better informed decisions to cope with daunting challenges, such as climate change.

Both are primitive small-framed short-tailed heritage sheep but there the similarity ends as they have unique physical appearances and flavours. Unlike the North Ronaldsay, the ancestors of the Orkney Boreray could not access the beach, so their flavours are influenced by rough pasture as opposed to the North Ronaldsay diet...

The process for developing national action plans on family farming in selected countries in Europe and Central Asia has begun with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The documents will provide a context-specific framework in Albania, Kyrgyzstan, and the Republic of Moldova, promoting inter-institutional...

On 8 March 2021, the United Nations and the world celebrate International Women’s Day, reflecting on progress made towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. Women in rural areas in Europe and Central Asia are still not equally represented in rural institutions and manage only 6.5 percent to 31 percent of agricultural...

Access Agriculture has won the prestigious International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food and Agriculture in the category “Award for innovations that empower youth in sustainable food systems” based on its model of young entrepreneurs.

This monthly e-newsletter gives a bird’s eye view of all the exciting updates from Access Agriculture, a world-leading organisation for quality agricultural training videos in international and local languages, working across the Global South. The links to different language versions are given below each section.

Starting today, a two-day training workshop on local products, gastronomy and women’s cooperatives, jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Bahçeşehir University, is taking place in Ordu, with the aim of promoting equal opportunities in education and sustainable development across Turkey. The event builds...

With Turkey hosting more than 3.6 million Syrians, that makes it home to the world’s largest refugee population. Many of those refugees, who have been granted “temporary protection” in Turkey, work in the agri-food and livestock sectors, which offer the most opportunities in the areas where they reside. However, these opportunities...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in close cooperation with Tajikistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, provided seeds of white bean, mung bean, maize, carrot, and cucumber to flood-affected farmers in the south-western part of the country. This critical livelihood support aims at safeguarding the incomes of vulnerable rural...

Armenia, which is highly vulnerable to climate change, has signed up to increase its forest cover and carbon removal from forests by reducing fuelwood demand and by introducing sustainable and climate-adaptive forest management techniques. This is envisaged through a forestry project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations...

In March of 2021, a Montenegrin cow became the first known exemplar of the species – indeed, the first farm asset of any kind – to be bought with a virtual currency in the western Balkans. Comically but appropriately enough, she was named Bitkoinka. The animal went for 0.013 bitcoin, the...

ately, there has been increasing discussion over one part of the jigsaw known as the ‘agrifood system’: food loss and waste. Without addressing it, we cannot ensure inclusiveness, food security and sustainability in how our food is produced, processed, traded, and consumed. A webinar organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the...

FAO concluded a virtual meeting to address pertinent food and agriculture issues of Europe and Central Asia, against a background of the new FAO Strategic Framework, and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The 39 FAO Member Nations were joined by the European Union, civil society, farmers’ organizations, and the private...

The FAO gender team in Europe and Central Asia is pleased to share with you the first issue of its newsletter. This new publication explores and discusses women’s and  men’s experiences in agriculture and food security in the region. In each quarterly issue, you will meet our real heroes and read...