Agriculture remains a vital sector for employment in Central Asia. As the region faces significant challenges, including climate change, land degradation, and limited farmer access to innovative technologies, the adoption of advanced and adaptive farming practices becomes increasingly crucial. On 10 June, a three-day Regional Training on Climate Smart Agriculture began in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as part of its project Small Farmers as Agricultural Innovators for Sustainable Agrifood Ecosystems. 

There is an urgent need to adopt advanced technologies to tackle the challenges posed by climate shocks and water scarcity in agriculture and increasing pressure on smallholder farmers and rural economies. This was the message emphasized by Viorel Gutu, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia of the Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations (FAO) during a crucial session of the Bloomberg HT Sustainable Agriculture and Food Summit, held on 12 June in Istanbul, Türkiye. The session, ‘The present and future of agriculture,’ dissected the complex objective of building a sustainable future for the agricultural sector in Europe and Central Asia, with particular attention on water security, innovation and digital transformation, as well as smallholder farmers engagement.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has trained European experts in advanced remote sensing methodologies that will help generate consistent, comparable and high-quality data on the region’s forests. At a week-long training event hosted by the French National Institute for Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) in Saint-Mandé in May, 12 experts from France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine learned to use Collect Earth Online (CEO) – an open-source software for satellite image interpretation – to collect data for assessing forest extent, trends and drivers of change from 2000 to 2024 based on a statistical sample. 

Water security is key for ensuring food security and countries can rely on the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to improve water management at the farm, national, and transboundary levels, as well as to facilitate to access innovative financing. This was the central message of Viorel Gutu, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia at the 2025 Hamburg Sustainability Conference. Gutu spoke at the panel discussion ‘Water, Food, Future: Navigating the global water crisis for food security’ on 2 June.

Central Asia, home to ecologically important river and wetland systems, extensive grasslands, and high mountain ranges that support unique biodiversity, faces escalating pressures. The region is particularly vulnerable due to its arid nature, increasing demands for natural resources, unsustainable development, and changing climate patterns, which contribute to an estimated USD 6 billion in annual economic losses related to land degradation alone. In response, five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – are supporting the development of the Central Asia Water-Land Nexus (CAWLN) programme.

While Bosnia and Herzegovina has successful examples of land degradation neutrality efforts, more aggressive action is needed to address the broader challenges.

The priorities should include harmonising land regulations across both entities and Brčko District, followed by the adoption of unified methodologies and the creation of reliable collection, storage and analysis capabilities. Only through an approach that ensures a uniform framework across all administrative units in Bosnia and Herzegovina can the issue of land protection be effectively addressed.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) this week held a two-day workshop for experts, representatives of universities and other partners from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Türkiye to teach them more about the approach and share best practices. As a platform for presenting achievements, sharing lessons learned and strengthening regional collaboration on the future of IPM, the workshop set the ambitious goal of encouraging long-term commitment to IPM strategies across the region.

A training course on strategic carbon accounting was held this week in Belgrade, Serbia to give experts and businesspersons practical tools to measure and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the agrifood sector. The training was convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as part of a larger project on Developing Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDC) Roadmaps for Climate-Smart Agrifood Systems, that is helping  Serbia and Uzbekistan decarbonize agrifood systems, adapt to climate risks, and attract private sector investment.

Forests are critical to Armenia, in part for their importance in mitigating the effects of climate change. As highlighted by Aram Meymaryan, Deputy Minister of Environment of Armenia, at a 29 April meeting for a project to cultivate 5 000 ha of forest in the country, particularly in the northern Lori and southern Syunik regions. Funded primarily by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the project leverages resources and expertise from other actors, including the Government of Armenia, the Austrian Development Agency, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (Italy), World Wildlife Fund for Nature Armenia, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Plants provide essential resources to life on Earth. Agrifood systems and food cultures in Europe and Central Asia are heavily dependent on plants – a dependence which relies on those plants being healthy and thriving. Protecting plant health under the holistic One Health approach can help countries of the region boost economic development, reduce rural poverty, support biodiversity, and improve nutrition. Therefore, this year’s International Day of Plant Health, celebrated globally on 12 May, focuses on plants as a critical pillar within One Health.