Second Meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of Central Asia

This meeting aims to help FAO member states in Central Asia achieve a shared understanding of the scope of the term “digital agriculture” and of the requirements for developing and implementing a digital agriculture strategy to transform agriculture. An additional objective is to identify potential areas where innovative applications of digital technologies can be implemented over the short-term.

The meeting will focus on sharing good practices, policies, and future directions in addressing the opportunities and challenges of digitalization in Central Asia. It will identify potential areas for intra-regional collaboration and exchange. It will further discuss the need for a coordinated approach among key ministries and government entities (agriculture, ICTs, finance, banking regulators) in order to strengthen the enabling environment for digital transformation of the agrifood system. Specifically, the meeting will:

1. Raise awareness and achieve a common understanding of the concept of digital agriculture;
2. Share good practices, lessons learned from innovative digital agriculture initiatives and applications, particularly from the Europe and Central Asia region;
3. Share current priorities and plans of Central Asian countries in introducing and upscaling digital solutions in agriculture;
4. Achieve a shared understanding of the requirements for developing and implementing a digital agriculture strategy to transform agriculture, using examples from the ECA region and outside it;
5. Identify a few digital-agriculture solutions that can be implemented on a priority basis in a relatively short period of time.