Online Conference on sustainable agricultural development in Central Asia ended successfully

In the opening session, prominent speakers like Kongratbay Sharipov (Rector of TSUE, Uzbekistan), Friedrich Wacker (Director General, German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture), Ekaterina Krivonos (CGIAR System Organization, Italy), Johan Swinnen (Director General of IFPRI, USA) and Thomas Glauben (Director of IAMO, Germany) were present. The welcome addresses were followed by a keynote speech from Josef Schmidhuber (Deputy Director in the Trade and Markets Division, FAO, Italy), on the impact of COVID-19 on agricultural trade. On the second day, Uktam Umurzakov (Rector of TIIAME, Uzbekistan), Botirjon Sulaymonov (Rector of TSAU, Uzbekistan), Zoir Mirzayev (Governor of Kashkadarya Region, Uzbekistan) and Qobul Tursunov (Governor of Navoi Region, Uzbekistan) welcomed the South-East-Asian participants in a morning session. The third day featured a panel discussion on the topic “Science-driven Policymaking for Sustainable and Inclusive Agricultural Development” with prominent participants from various policy and research institutions.

For three days, the total of 180 participants attended presentations in 18 parallel sessions, one panel discussion and four keynote speeches by Josef Schmidhuber (FAO, Italy), Hyun-Hoon Lee (Kangwon National University, South Korea), Barbara Janusz-Pawletta (Kazakh-German University, Kazakhstan), and Eugenia Serova (Higher School of Economics, HSE Moscow, Russian Federation). One key event of the conference was the panel discussion on the last day. The panel of national and international experts from science, consultancy and politics discussed science-driven policymaking for sustainable and inclusive agricultural development. The panel discussants were Kamiljon Akramov (Leader of Central Asia Program at the IFPRI, USA), Shuhrat Amanov (Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan), Adkham Bekmuradov (Executive Director of the “El-Yurt Umidi” Foundation, Uzbekistan), Adrian Neal, (Advisor of the Ministry of Agriculture of Uzbekistan) and Eugenia Serova (Institute for Agrarian Studies in the HSE Moscow, Russian Federation). Aziza Umarova (SmartGOV.consulting, Uzbekistan) moderated the panel discussion. As panel discussants noted, global experience should be combined with local research to identify locally adapted policy instruments for sustainability of food systems in the context of COVID-19. Towards this aim, the discipline of agricultural economics should be further developed in the region to strengthen research capacities at universities and research institutes.