BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 28. International Fund for Agricultural Development in cooperation with Uzbekistan is implementing Agriculture Diversification and Modernization Project in the country’s Namangan, Fergana and Andijan regions and Dairy Value Chain Development Project (DVCDP) in Jizzah and Kashkadarya regions, Country Program Assistant at IFAD Kaan Bulut told Trend.
“With the completion of the DVCDP project in March 2023, a second phase will be designed in 2023 to scale up the successful model of an inclusive, competitive and sustainable dairy value chain. Innovative approaches such as Non-Sovereign Operations (NSO) directly involving private sector transactions as well as large-scale co-financing on climate-smart irrigation and sustainable natural resource management are also foreseen,” Bulut said.
According to him, IFAD and the government of Uzbekistan have adopted a new Country Strategic Opportunity Program (COSOP) for 2023 – 2027 with an objective to invest in the resilience and productivity of 205,000 rural households, representing 1.2 million rural people, small-scale producers, women and youth.
“With the joint vision to double the income of farmers and contribute to halving poverty, the COSOP introduces new ways of working to deliver impact to the rural population of Uzbekistan,” he said.
Bulut further noted that in order for IFAD investments to contribute to the ambitious reform agenda of the government the delivery accelerators such as a programmatic approach with multiphased projects over 5 years, an integrated management unit, the establishment in Tashkent of IFAD’s first Office in Central Asia will be introduced.