Experts discussed joint work to tackle land abandonment in Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan
Ankara- Abandonment or un-utilization of agricultural lands is a common problem for many countries in Europe and Central Asia. Only in Turkey, about 2 million hectares of fertile agricultural lands are currently being abandoned and unutilized.
FAO has launched a new project to re-activate abandoned agricultural lands in Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Funded by the Government of Turkey through the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme, the project will address the problem of land abandonment, as well as support structural development of agriculture through land consolidation and improved land policy and public policy objectives. Specifically, it’ll support the introduction of a land banking instrument in Turkey, analyze the needs and develop capacities in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, and establish a collaboration mechanism among the countries for knowledge exchange.
Aside from its negative effects on the national and local economies and food security, the abandonment of fertile agricultural lands hinders the implementation of land protection measures, triggers land degradation especially in dry regions, and decreases the carbon sink capacity, while increasing the vulnerability of the agricultural sector to climate change. At the same time, as small farm sizes and excessive land fragmentation are among the main reasons for land abandonment, resolving land tenure problem is crucial to achieve national Land Degradation Neutrality targets and the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions.
The new project will contribute to improvement of farm structures by facilitating farm enlargement and reducing land fragmentation in Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
FAO is preparing to implement a new project to tackle the issue of re-activating the abandoned agricultural lands in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Funded by the Government of the Republic of Turkey through the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme (FTPP II), the project aims to support introduction of a land banking instrument in Turkey and to analyze the needs and develop capacities in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan with a view to address the problem of land abandonment but also to support structural development of agriculture (through land consolidation projects) and achievement of better land policy and public policy objectives.
As an initial step, senior officials and experts of the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and FAO met virtually last week, including Morten Hartvigsen, FAO land tenure officer and Metin Türker, Deputy Director-General for Agrarian Reform.
Meeting participants all agreed that this project will decrease the agricultural sector’s vulnerability to climate change impacts.
Later, subregional workshops and policy dialogues will be organized for the three partner countries to exchange knowledge and ensure an integrated approach for tackling the problem of land abandonment.
CONTACT:
KIVANÇ ÖZCAN
Communication Specialist
FAO Turkey
Journalists and editors:
For video, photos and audio clips contact: (+39) 06 570 53625 or [email protected].
Online tools:
Footage downloads: FAO Media Vault
Photos: FAOnews Flickr account
FAO online newsroom
RSS feed of FAO news releases
Follow us on Twitter: @FAOnews
FAO Regional Office | 20 Kalman Imre utca, H-1054 Budapest, Hungary| (+36) 1 4612000| www.fao.org/europe