The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with financial and technical assistance from the Russian Federation, will launch two projects to develop climate-based sustainable agriculture in the Fergana Valley, as well as in the countries of the African Sahel.

Both projects are funded by Russia through the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation for a total of $3 million. FAO has been selected as the operator of this project, and its executors will be leading Russian institutes in the field of agricultural land reclamation.,

— Oleg Kobyakov, Director of the FAO Office for Relations with Russia, said in an interview.

The first project will be implemented at the end of 2025 in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. A similar agricultural sustainability program for Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger and Mali will be launched in early 2026.

The project is important as a pilot project: if it shows results (an increase in yields by 30-50% and a reduction in acute hunger by 15-20% by 2029), FAO and Russia are ready to scale the initiative to 15-20 million dollars in the second stage.

@divgen