Azerbaijan developing five-year strategy to expand agrarian advisory services

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2 By Fidan Babayeva - Trend: Azerbaijan is developing a five-year strategy of agrarian advisory services expansion, Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Agriculture. According to the ministry, the strategy is based on ‘Strengthening Agrarian Advisory Services’ project funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The project will apply the model pilot agrarian advisory services in the Ganja-Gazakh and Guba-Khachmaz regions. Program Manager of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Rainer Freund noted that the work started by the Azerbaijani state as an integral part of the work on the development of the agrarian sector within the ‘Strengthening Agrarian Advisory Services’ project is very important. "The pilot models of agrarian services that will be developed within the project will show in the future how these models will be built in the country," he said. Melek Chakmak, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Azerbaijan, pointed out that a draft law on agrarian advisory services has been prepared. "We must strive to ensure that our recommendations on the implementation of agrarian advisory services are reflected in the legislation," she said. Yagub Guliyev, the senior specialist of the public information and international relations department at the Agrarian Science and Innovation Center, noted that the project is expected to create a system corresponding to local conditions for the agrarian advisory service in Azerbaijan. This will also provide an efficient agricultural advisory service. At the meeting of the project board, the results of a survey conducted among more than 700 farmers in two pilot regions and a target region of the Lankaran economic region were discussed. The participants noted that with the pilot selection of the model of the agrarian advisory service in developed countries, it will be localized in accordance with the survey results.