OVERVIEW

The USAID Agribusiness Development activity supports private sector-led growth in Uzbekistan’s agriculture sector by introducing new value-added technologies and management practices across the entire value chain for targeted agricultural commodities.

ACTIVITY COMPONENTS

Agribusiness Growth 

• Introduce innovative business management practices to improve the competitiveness and profitability of local agribusinesses.
• Co-finance investments in new technologies to enable agribusinesses to add value to products, create jobs, access new markets, and increase sales and income.

Women and Youth Empowerment

• Provide business skills and vocational development training to empower women and youth with the skills and capacity to become entrepreneurs or obtain employment with local businesses.
• Co-fund equipment purchases to select graduates of business skills and vocational development trainings to assist them to start or grow their businesses.

Linking Academia with Agribusiness

• Promote internship and employment opportunities for students at agribusiness universities; introduce new and improved curricula to equip students with the practical skills needed to support the development of agribusinesses.
• Design and implement joint research projects between academia and the private sector that serve the needs of agribusinesses.

Strengthening Agriculture Extension Services

• Introduce new and improved agriculture extension services; build the capacity of extension agents to provide quality agriculture extension services.

Policy Promotion

• Analyze, revise, and propose policies to improve Uzbekistan’s agriculture and agritourism sectors.

KEY RESULTS

• Organized trainings to improve the knowledge, skills, and capacity of more than 2,000 farmers and agribusiness owners in the horticulture, aquaculture, and dairy sectors.
• Trained more than 1,300 professors and students on postharvest handling, processing, and best practices for integrating modern technologies and management techniques for produce. Training was implemented in partnership with nine of Uzbekistan’s higher education institutions and the private sector.
• Co-financed $3 million in investments for 13 agribusinesses through the activity’s Agribusiness Development Fund. The investments added value to agricultural products and services, facilitated access to new markets, and generated increased sales, income, and employment. 
• Assisted partner agribusinesses to diversify production, improve product quality, and access new markets through one to one consultations. The consultations led to revenue increases of over $9 million.
• Trained more than 1,300 rural women and female youth in a range of vocational trades, including accounting, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, social media marketing, and graphic design. Training was accomplished through 13 private sector partnerships.
• Prepared policy recommendations to improve the enabling environment of agritourism and agricultural cooperatives, promote agricultural land reform, and create the conditions for the establishment of an international agricultural university. 
• Subcontracted a local NGO to jointly distribute equipment to 223 female graduates of entrepreneurship and vocational trainings.
• Improved public outreach through social media by reaching over 2.7 million views on YouTube, and over 10,000 daily views on Telegram, and increased the number of followers to over 3,500 on the Agribusiness Development activity Facebook page.

Original source can be found here.