BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 5. Azerbaijan’s agriculture sector has showed a substantial resilience to the economic challenges with a robust growth 3.8 percent in 2020, the World Bank said (WB), Trend reports via the Bank’s Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD).
“The government has established AzPromo to lead in the quest for alternative export markets. It has made some progress through support for trade missions, participation in international trade fairs, and the promotion of the Made in Azerbaijan brand,” the WB said.
However, as the report noted, due to the situation in Ukraine and international sanctions against Russia, the countries of the region, including Azerbaijan, need to diversify their import and export trade to cover other markets. “This will require greater competitiveness in agricultural products, which amplifies the importance of ongoing efforts by the government to enhance food security compliance and productivity”.
“Scaling up such initiatives should be a priority of the government in light of the constraint affecting trade with Russia,” the SCD said.
As the WB suggests, in order to improve agriculture sector resilience, Azerbaijan needs to strengthen ties between farmers, especially small farmers, support knowledge and technology transfer, promote public and private logistics capacity, improve soil management, invest in irrigation infrastructure and water-saving technologies, increase public investment in rural roads, promote private investment financing, build capacity to comply with international food safety standards and promote export market diversification.
“Developing smart agriculture that uses water efficiently, green fertilizers, and clean energy may also help the sector to increase productivity while enhancing resilience to climate-related risks and reducing emissions,” the report concluded.
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