Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
The important reforms recently implemented in Azerbaijan's agricultural sector, including improvement of the food security system and supporting of agricultural producers by providing incentives for technology transfer, are aimed at increasing the productivity and competitiveness of this sector in Azerbaijan, Zaur Rzayev, Foreign Relations Advisor of the World Bank (WB) office in Azerbaijan, told Trend on Feb. 19.
“The WB approved the project "Agricultural Competitiveness Improvement" in 2013, the total cost of which was $53.2 million,” Rzayev added. “Some $34.5 million of that amount is envisaged as financing from the WB while $4.3 million of this amount has already been used. The remaining funds will be paid before the implementation of the project, which is envisaged for the end of 2021.”
“As a result, both consumers and producers will see benefits, as well as an increase in income for small farmers,” advisor added.
"The WB-financed Agricultural Competitiveness Improvement Project is aimed at improving the competitiveness of the country's agriculture by improving both supply and demand in agribusiness, ensuring better processing capacity, and facilitating the market access,” the advisor said. “The additional objective of the project is to support the measures aimed at improving quality agricultural products which are supplied to the market."
Azerbaijan has been cooperating with the WB since 1992. To date, the WB has allocated the loans to Azerbaijan totaling $3.5 billion for the implementation of more than 50 projects. Thus, Azerbaijan entered the list of 20 most reforming countries according to the WB in 2019.
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