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FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

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LANDNET workshop to discuss good practices on land consolidation success in Europe and around the world
28/05/2025

In many countries of the Europe and Central Asia region, the majority of smallholder farmers own fragmented land parcels that are difficult to farm efficiently, hampering economic growth and sustainable production.

One solution is land consolidation, the reallocation of agricultural land parcels to improve the farm structure. At a three-day LANDNET workshop in Budapest, Hungary, from 28 to 30 May, experts from more than 30 countries will discuss how the process benefits women’s land rights and tenure security, combats climate change and land degradation, and boosts the development and regulation of agricultural land markets.

New digital technologies boost beekeeping for smallholder farmers and family beekeepers
20/05/2025
Today on World Bee Day, we all have an opportunity – whether we work for governments, organizations or civil society or are concerned private citizens – to promote actions that will protect and enhance pollinators and their habitats, improve their abundance and diversity, and support the sustainable development of beekeeping. Developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the publication Digital technologies and solutions for beekeeping explores how innovative technologies are helping support this vital practice, boosting productivity and complementing the deep-rooted expertise, knowledge and skills of beekeepers.
Sowing the seeds of change: Montenegro modernizes smallholder feed production one experiment at a time
19/05/2025
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through a Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), is ready to provide Montenegro with the tools needed to modernize its feed methods and accelerate the livestock sector: new types of seeds, fertilizer, expert knowledge and reinforcing the power of community, all of which are important in empowering smallholders and gearing up the agricultural sector, scaling up production, and supporting the country’s accession process to the European Union (EU).
North Macedonia steps up efforts to digitalize agriculture
06/05/2025
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy of North Macedonia, organized a national consultation workshop on 28 April in Skopje to accelerate the digital transformation of the agrifood sector. The event gathered around 40 attendees, including farmers, young students and representatives from government institutions, civil society, academia and the private sector, to discuss the current state of digitalization in agriculture and jointly develop concrete policy recommendations for sustainable progress.
Securing land rights with just a few clicks
28/04/2025
Just a few years ago, registering of land or changes in property rights, such as an inheritance or a purchase, was a time-consuming and often costly process in Serbia. It would take months to register a transaction. Data were fragmented, unreliable and not easily accessible, often available only in analogue archives. The process of obtaining the documents to prove someone’s land rights usually required several visits to the cadastre offices, which could be in another village.
FAO support to Tajikistan’s cooperatives and rural development improves agricultural productivity
17/04/2025
Within its ongoing efforts to strengthen Tajikistan's agricultural sector, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has successfully completed a Technical Cooperation Programme Facility project on cooperative development and to strengthen rural institutions under the national Agrarian Reform Programme. The FAO project helped improve the working environment of cooperatives and strengthened the capacity of national authorities to support the development of cooperatives and rural institutions. On a local level, the project supported four agricultural cooperatives.
From farmers to government officials — everyone benefits from a digital land cadastre
15/04/2025
In 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) began supporting the Ministry of Agriculture of Turkmenistan and its Land Resources Service in modernizing and digitalizing the country’s land cadastre through the technical cooperation project “Support to the establishment of a Digital Land Cadastre”. This project is now concluding. A meeting was held 9 April in Ashgabat to mark the finalization of the project, recap the achievements and look to future actions to continue improving the digital cadastre system.
Innovative farming in Tajikistan
03/04/2025
In the Khatlon region of Tajikistan, farming of cotton, wheat and other crops has long been the backbone of rural livelihoods. Safarmad Gadoev, a farmer from the city of Kulob, was one of many who relied on the production of these crops to support his family. But the challenges of cotton and wheat farming—rising production costs, fluctuating market prices, water scarcity, and the impacts of climate change—made it difficult for him to earn a stable income. 
Twinning for digital agriculture
21/03/2025
As part of the Digital Villages Initiative (DVI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has facilitated a twinning study tour between pilot digital villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Almería SmartAgriHub in Spain. Over a week in February 2025, representatives from these villages – alongside key institutions such as the University of East Sarajevo Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Agriculture – participated in an in-depth knowledge exchange. The goal of the participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina was to learn from Spain’s pioneering agricultural innovation model and explore the potential to implement similar strategies in their own communities.
Moldovan farmers receive critical support amid drought, economic crisis
03/03/2025

Over the past two years, Moldovan farmers have faced a devastating drought, economic hardship and the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine, jeopardizing their livelihoods. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with important financial support from the Austrian Development Agency and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, responded promptly to this crisis. Through a joint project with the United Nations Development Programme, FAO provided emergency support to more than 17 000 vulnerable small-scale farmers and households across 23 districts of the country.

FAO, Republic of Moldova join forces to better train and support farmers
28/02/2025

The agriculture sector in the Republic of Moldova, a cornerstone of the national economy, faces many diverse challenges. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova today signed a new project agreement aimed at strengthening agricultural extension and advisory services to make it easier for farmers to receive crucial information, advice and training opportunities.

Gender inequality in rural Georgia: challenges and pathways for parity in agrifood systems
19/02/2025

Rural women in Georgia make important contributions across the spectrum of activities in agrifood systems, working in food production, processing and sales. Yet, according to the National gender profile of agriculture and rural livelihoods: Georgia by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), they face significant intersecting inequalities, marginalization and discrimination. The report sheds light on gender issues in rural households and family farming, focusing on different agriculture subsectors, fisheries and forestry.

FAO and the European Union provide grants of up to USD150 000 to support aggregation models in berry and vegetable production
17/02/2025
On 17 February 2025, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the support of the European Union (EU) and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, is launching a new window within the third cycle of its grant programme that will be focused on supporting aggregation models  in agriculture. The programme will assist small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in developing aggregation models that would improve the integration of small farmers into specific supply chains, enhance storage and processing capacities as well as improving access to domestic and international markets. Applications can be submitted through the State Agrarian Registry (SAR) until 17 March 2025.
The skills that saved one Georgian woman’s life
12/02/2025
Nino Kavtaradze’s skills and experience processing fruits and making cheeses provided her with income for vital cancer treatment and equipped her to act as Lead Farmer in an FAO initiative. Although she has worked as dairy farmer for 30 years, Nino still gained new knowledge from the FAO Farmer Field School, which she hosted in her home for 30 women farmers.
State-of-the-art grapevine pruning online video courses are now available in Georgian
31/01/2025
Georgian viticulturalists can now gain in-depth knowledge on winter and green pruning in vineyards by accessing online technical video courses. The video courses by Julio Prieto Diaz, FAO’s International Integrated Vineyard Management Expert, were dubbed in Georgian and are available on the web. The online learning platform was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) support under the IV phase of the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD IV) funded by the European Union and Sweden.  
FAO surveys digitalization of agriculture in Tajikistan
28/01/2025
From September to December 2024, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Centre for Sociological Research “Zerkalo”, carried out a large-scale assessment in rural areas of Tajikistan to understand smallholder farmers’ interactions with information and communication technologies (ICT), including their awareness, attitudes, the use in farming, barriers to access, and perceptions of the benefits of the technologies.
Turkmenistan embraces advanced remote sensing technology for enhanced crop monitoring
14/01/2025
Although agriculture in Turkmenistan has a modest share of the gross domestic product (GDP), the sector holds strategic importance, as a significant portion of the population lives in rural areas and over 40 percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture. One of the gaps in the transformation process after 1991 is the lack of a modern crop monitoring system that provides reliable and timely crop information for informed decision-making, and thus contributes to sustainable land management and enhanced productivity in crop production. To address this need, collaboration has begun between Turkmenistan and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to introduce cutting-edge technology and skills in land use monitoring and remote sensing.
FAO helps local communities help themselves to a more sustainable future
23/12/2024
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the lives and livelihoods of people living in rural areas could transform to be more sustainable through combining priorities and finding solutions that address needs in both the agriculture and tourism sectors. Recognizing the missed opportunities caused by this lack of an integrated, multistakeholder approach to rural development, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated a Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), with the aim of establishing local agricultural and rural development plans to advance sustainability.
FAO project scaled up rural women’s empowerment
11/12/2024
Women living in rural areas of Tajikistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan are a large portion of the population and play vital roles in both farming and non-farming activities. Among the many challenges they face are gender-based barriers that affect their efforts to build resilient livelihoods. Poor social and physical infrastructure, climate variability (which affects crop yields and prices) and structural inequalities widen gender gaps and limit rural women's access to economic opportunities. For the past three years, the FAO Türkiye Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture has helped these women gain access to technical skills and equipment and has guided responsible institutions to ensure that policies and practices in agriculture and forestry are aware and responsive to the needs and priorities of rural women.
Women behind push for resilience Bosnia and Herzegovinian agriculture
14/11/2024
The agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina faces significant gender disparities. Women account for nearly half (49 percent) of the rural population and 20 percent of employed women work in the agriculture sector, yet only 18 percent of farms are managed by women and only 38 percent of women own or have part-ownership of agricultural land. Strengthening capacities of women from rural areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina and supporting agriculture and rural development policies with an emphasis on gender equality are among the main goals of the project "Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas," implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN Women and financed by Sweden.
Events

11/ 6

2025

13/6

2025

Second Regional Rural Youth Forum for Europe and Central Asia
Budapest (Hungary), 11/06/2025 - 13/06/2025

Young women and men can play a catalytic role in supporting economic growth and development in rural areas. However, there are still gaps in understanding the specific economic, social, and cultural issues that affect their aspirations, livelihoods, well-being, and integration into local economies. Given this, effective policies and interventions are needed to support rural youth’s livelihoods,...

14/ 1

2025

18/1

2025

Training on RuralInvest toolkit (Kyrgyzstan)
(Kyrgyzstan), 14/01/2025 - 18/01/2025

Training for cooperatives from Naryn and Issyk-Kul regions to learn how to develop business plans using the RuralInvest toolkit. The RuralInvest toolkit offers users an interactive, hands-on path, going from theory to practice, to work together with the entrepreneurs and create feasible, appropriate, and sustainable business plans. Thus, beneficiaries in Kyrgyzstan will be equipped with knowled...

17/ 12

2024

19/12

2024

Speed dating consultations
Batken (Kyrgyzstan), 17/12/2024 - 19/12/2024

Within the framework of the project “Capacitated women civil society organizations sustaining peace in Kyrgyzstan”, so-called "Speed dating" sessions will be held in two rural areas of Batken district with the participation of national experts and local self-government bodies, local council deputies and residents.

19/ 9

2024

Workshop: Resolving private-public co-ownership to improve agricultural land management and land tenure in the Pelagonija Region
Bitola (North Macedonia), 19/09/2024

On 19 September 2024, FAO, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Economy of North Macedonia, will launch the project “Support for Resolving Private-Public Co-ownership to Improve Agricultural Land Management and Land Tenure in the Pelagonija Region”, under the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme. The workshop, taking place in the Council Hall of the Municipality o...

5/ 6

2024

7/6

2024

15th International LANDNET Workshop
Middelburg (Netherlands), 05/06/2024 - 07/06/2024

The 15th LANDNET workshop will take place from 5 to 7 June 2024 in Middelburg, Netherlands. The workshop is organized by FAO together with Kadaster and the Province of Zeeland in the Netherlands.

13/ 12

2023

Regional consultation on integrated land use planning
Virtual Event, 13/12/2023

FAO published the first 'Guidelines for land-use planning' in 1993 as the first key source of knowledge on land use planning. After 30 years, new challenges, demands and insights for integrated land use planning call for an update of these guidelines. In this context, FAO has been working on the new version of 'Guidelines for integrated land use planning - an update' in collaboration with key p...

29/ 11

2023

30/11

2023

Regional Rural Youth Forum for Europe and Central Asia
Budapest (Hungary), Hybrid Event, 29/11/2023 - 30/11/2023

To better coordinate the youth-related work and processes in the ECA region, under the Regional Priority Programme on Empowering smallholders, family farms and youth, facilitating rural livelihoods and poverty reduction, FAO organizes the Regional Rural Youth Forum for Europe and Central Asia.

5/ 9

2023

Youth consultation: Take action and scale up initiatives to reduce food loss and waste
Virtual Event, 05/09/2023

Join us for the conversation on shaping food waste policy in Europe and Central Asia. Food waste has wide-ranging consequences, impacting resources, the environment, and social equity. At the World Food Forum, we are dedicated to reducing food waste globally. In response to its importance, our Europe and Central Asia team conducted a comprehensive analysis of food waste policy in the region, id...

5/ 9

2023

7/9

2023

14th International LANDNET Workshop
İstanbul (Türkiye), 05/09/2023 - 07/09/2023

The 14th international LANDNET workshop will take place from 5 to 7 September 2023 in Istanbul, Türkiye, organized by FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Türkiye.

22/ 6

2022

24/6

2022

2nd Regional Workshop on integrated community development
Budapest (Hungary), Hybrid Event, 22/06/2022 - 24/06/2022

Based on country experiences, FAO aims at further developing the concept of integrated community development for Europe and Central Asia. FAO established an informal regional technical network on community development in 2019. The 2022 workshop should help revitalize the technical network and strengthen partnerships with key regional and national actors.

18/ 5

2023

Digital Villages in Action in Europe and Central Asia
Virtual Event, 18/05/2023

Join us for the “Digital Villages in Action in Europe and Central Asia” virtual event, where we will launch DVI actions in eight countries, bringing together policy actors, stakeholders, partners, and beneficiaries. The event will be held on Zoom on 18 May 2023, from 09.30 to 12.00 (CEST) with English-Russian interpretation.

26/ 4

2023

Promoting youth engagement in agriculture and food systems in Europe and Central Asia
Virtual Event, 26/04/2023

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) is organizing a series of regional youth consultations on promoting youth engagement in agriculture and food systems in Europe and Central Asia.

Participants will discuss how to enlarge youth engagement in agricultural value chains in the region. The event will consider the benefits and gains that youth can bri...

23/ 1

2023

25/1

2023

Training on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas
İstanbul (Türkiye), 23/01/2023 - 25/01/2023

Small-scale family farmers can be instrumental in elevating human rights in the food and agriculture sector – a key element in ensuring the sustainability of food security.

27/ 4

2022

28/4

2022

Subregional workshop on land market development in Central Asia
Hybrid Event, 27/04/2022 - 28/04/2022

The workshop will gather representatives of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as experts from the government, academia, civil society, and the private sector to share experience in land market management

6/ 6

2023

8/6

2023

Third Regional workshop on integrated community development
Budapest (Hungary), 06/06/2023 - 08/06/2023

Based on country experiences, FAO aims at further developing the concept of integrated community development for Europe and Central Asia. FAO established an informal regional technical network on community development in 2019.

24/ 6

2022

Regional Dialogue on the United Nations Decade of Family Farming
Hybrid Event, 24/06/2022

9:00 – 13:00 CEST In the framework of the 2nd Regional Workshop on integrated community development, FAO is organizing a regional dialogue on the United Nations Decade of Family Farming in Europe and Central Asia in a hybrid modality. The aim of the eve

14/ 9

2022

Leveraging the potential of multi-purpose land consolidation in Eastern Europe
Hybrid Event, 14/09/2022

FAO and the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) are organizing a joint sessions during the 2022 FIG Congress with a special focus on the potential for multi-purpose land consolidation in countries of Eastern Europe.   The objective of the session