Mamura Mingbaeva still wakes up before sunrise to work on her farm in Uzbekistan, just as she has done every day in the past 30 years. In her community, many rural women earn income by selling milk and sour cream, and she also learned milk processing in the family.

Natural hazards are unavoidable. The way we mitigate and manage them is within our control – and preparedness is the first line of defence. The Europe and Central Asia region is vulnerable to several types of natural hazards, including floods, storms, droughts, wildfires and landslides. Due to the effects of climate change, climate-related hazards in particular have increased in frequency and intensity over the past few decades. The agriculture sector and food security are heavily impacted by these phenomena. FAO estimates that the agriculture sector absorbs more than 26 percent of total economic costs from climate-related disasters.    

The Government of Tajikistan and the United Nations today convened the Second Joint Steering Committee meeting of the Joint SDG Fund Programme Transforming Food Systems for Better Nutrition in Tajikistan. Senior government officials, representatives of United Nations agencies and development partners met to review implementation progress, validate key achievements and provide strategic guidance for the programme’s next phase.

Serbia has taken an important step towards building more climate-resilient forests with its first national training of trainers on climate-adaptive silviculture. The three-day programme, held from 15 to 17 July 2026, united experts from research institutions, government and public forest enterprises who will play a leading role in introducing climate-adaptive forestry practices across Serbia.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) brought national stakeholders together in Tbilisi this week for a workshop on animal genetic resources. The initial meeting was followed by field visits to the mountainous regions of Georgia, where the team collected data to help protect the country’s native cattle breeds as part of a broader effort that includes a new AI-powered breed identification tool.

Belarus took an important step towards the international recognition of its agricultural heritage at an event in the Vitebsk region this week. Flax cultivation in the region is closely connected with agricultural knowledge, local practices, rural livelihoods and the surrounding natural landscapes. Developed and passed down over generations, these practices form part of a wider cultural and agricultural heritage that reflects the region’s strong relationship with agriculture and nature.

Orchards need pollinators, and bees need flowering trees – and a late frost damages both at once. Today, national institutions, local public authorities, producer associations, research institutions, development partners and farmers met at a working apiary in Hulboaca village, Grătiești, to discuss how fruit growers and beekeepers in the Republic of Moldova can prepare for that risk together. The workshop was convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as part of an ongoing project funded by Japan.

Kazakhstan and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have launched three new projects under the FAO–Kazakhstan Partnership Programme. Raimund Jehle, FAO Deputy Regional Representative, and Yermek Kenzhekhanuly, Vice-Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, exchanged signed official documents at a ceremony on 22 July.

Sustainable forest management not only helps reduce forest degradation but also supports poverty reduction and improves livelihoods. Achieving these outcomes requires the meaningful participation of all groups that depend on and contribute to forest resources, including women, who play important roles in forestry and agroforestry systems. For this reason, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) calls for greater recognition of women’s contributions to forestry and agroforestry systems across Europe and Central Asia. 

As Montenegro works to realize its climate ambitions and build greater resilience, strengthening institutional capacity to access international climate finance is becoming increasingly important. Building a common understanding of climate finance mechanisms across institutions is a key step in translating national priorities into high-quality investment projects. To support this process, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Region Development, implemented the Month of climate finance learning, a unique six-week awareness-raising initiative under the Readiness Project of the Green Climate Fund (GCF).