Conference on Agriculture Development in Central Asia and Workshop on Cross Border Animal Disease Control

The Asian Development Bank, the CAREC Institute, and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) organized the conference and workshop to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and policy options for agricultural development and cross-border animal disease control in the CAREC member countries (CMCs).

The objectives were to

• share IFPRI research on agricultural development in the CMCs,
• share recent experience from CMCs in agricultural diversification and disease control, and
• initiate a policy dialogue to develop policy briefs on potential investment opportunities and areas of cooperation in the CMCs.

With 11 member countries-Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, People’s Republic of China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-and six supporting multilateral institutions, CAREC supports approximately $27.7 billion of investment across 166 projects, as of 2015.

Agriculture is an important sector for the CMCs, employing significant portions of the labor force and generating significant shares of gross domestic product. It relates closely to the four CAREC priority areas-transport, trade facilitation, energy, and trade policy-and there is growing interest to acknowledge agriculture more centrally within them.

However, agricultural production still suffers from underdevelopment in the region. Underdeveloped transport and trade logistics, cumbersome border controls, and weak sanitary and phytosanitary controls further restrict its development.

Related Publications

• Modernizing Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures to Expand Trade and Ensure Food Safety
• CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy 2020 | РУССКИЙ