Uzbekistan organizes OCOP training sessions on sustainable sweet cherry production in the five districts of the Fergana Region

10/07/2023

Fergana, Uzbekistan - More than 130 sweet cherry growers from the Fergana Region in Uzbekistan were brought together under FAO’s One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative to provide them with agrotechnical, technical support, and advice to increase the competitiveness of their products in domestic and international markets, thereby increasing the incomes of smallholder farmers and contributing to sustainable rural developments.

Within the framework of the project, together with the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovations System (AKIS) in the Fergana Region of the Fergana Valley, Zulunov Azizbek and his team, the FAO national consultants Shuhrat Abrorov, Alisher Saydaliev, and Mansur Yuldoshev, conducted a 3-day seminar from 10 to 12 July 2023. During the sessions, the trainers provided detailed information on sweet cherry pruning as well as the correct use of fertilizers in sweet cherry orchards, with about 135 participants from five districts in the region, namely O’zbekiston, Rishton, Fergana district, Quva and Quvasoy. 

This technical training is under the FAO project “Innovative Approaches for Better Plant Production” funded by the Flexible Voluntary Contribution (FVC) of FAO, previously known as Flexible Multi-Partner Mechanism (FMM). The ongoing project is being implemented in the first five OCOP demonstration countries covering all five FAO regions, including Uzbekistan, which is representing the Europe and Central Asia region and promotes sweet cherry as its chosen Special Agricultural Product (SAP). The project will assist countries to initiate the implementation of the OCOP initiative in the field through the adoption and promotion of innovative approaches for better crop production and marketing of SAPs in the demonstration countries.

OCOP national consultants and growers from the Fergana district in the KGB sweet cherry orchard

Azizbek Abduqahorov (orchard owner) is trying his new pruning sheers handed by the FAO OCOP team.

Training sessions conducted for the Quva and Quvasoy growers

Practical training in the Nodirjon Quvasoy farming enterprise located in Quvasoy district, where participants witnessed more than ten new sweet cherry varieties, planted 5 by 3 meters and trained by the KGB method