Uzbekistan—USAID Agricultural Value Chains Activity (Uzbekistan AVC)

The USAID Agricultural Value Chains Activity in Uzbekistan (Uzbekistan AVC) capitalized on the achievements of USAID’s Uzbekistan AgLinks (2007–2011) and AgLinks Plus (2011–2015) projects, which were implemented by DAI. We scaled up support to post-harvest handling and fostering new business partnerships while expanding opportunities for women’s entrepreneurship and employment. Uzbekistan AVC co-invested with stakeholders at key points along the chain—including local institutes, agrarian universities, and service providers such as agro-input dealers, nursery extension staff, pruning groups, consolidators, and cold chain operators—to ensure scalability and sustainability.

We improved the quality and volume of agricultural production and post-harvest handling and production, facilitated market linkages, and linked educational institutions with private sector demand.

The program supported 510 organizations and businesses, including fruit and vegetable producers, processors, cold store owners, and exporters along the value chain by linking domestic partners to strengthen supply chains and linking exporters to foreign buyers to reach new markets. Through the program, USAID leveraged $23 million in private sector investment in the agricultural sector, which resulted in improved agricultural practices over 11.4 percent of horticultural land and 55.1 percent producers adopting new practices.

Uzbekistan AVC provided more than 100,000 training hours to its partners. These training courses were reinforced with do-it-yourself videos that have been viewed on YouTube more than 4 million times.

Sample Activities

• Provide technical assistance in best agricultural practices at demo plots for crops such as cherry, peach, apple, grape, pomegranate, tomato, cucumber, onion, and carrot.
• Invest in the full operation of Uzbekistan’s new tissue culture lab and supplemental support to government institutions to propagate disease-free, true-to-type plant materials locally and distribute them to certified nursery operators.
• Use the MEVA 3.0 platform to develop a social marketing forum to allow users to access up-to-date information on quantities, qualities, and pricing for horticulture to drive marketing decisions for farmers, cold store owners and managers, exporters, and buyers.
• Facilitate cold chain demo site activities, workshops targeted to women, and exchange programs for cold storage operators.
• Build linkages between producers and local supermarkets, take advantage of local trade events, and develop relationships with buyers in new markets.
• Conduct AVC horticulture assessment and mapping with agrarian university professors and students, and develop hands-on production and post-harvest learning at universities.
• Introduce new ICT tools to help facilitate learning.

Select Results

• Incentivized more than 10,000 horticultural producers and processors to adopt new technologies and practices, improving agricultural practices on 15,600 hectares of horticultural farms.
• Published studies in the International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology on the “Qualitative Organizing of Storage Process of Table Grape Varieties by Using Grape Guard Sheets in Cold Storage” and the Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems on the “Effect of Different Grape Guard Sheets for the Storage of ‘Toyfi’ Variety of Grape.”
• Leveraged $23 million in private sector investment in the establishment of new orchards, installation of water-saving technologies, expansion of the cold chain network, and upgrades in product packaging, marketing, and branding to meet international standards.
• Provided 100,000 hours of training and facilitated the emergence of 75 new consulting service providers, contributing to a 67 percent increase in farm yields, increasing income among targeted farmers by 107 percent.