In this blog, Dr Botir Dosov illustrates how countries in the Central Asia and Caucasus Region are adapting to online communication tools during COVID-19, which has been a challenge for both farmers and Extension and Advisory Services (EAS). He believes that this crisis will help EAS to broaden its agenda beyond food and nutrition security.  

CONTEXT

More than 80 million people live in the eight countries of the Central Asia and Caucasus (CAC) Region, of which more than half (55.3%) are employed in agriculture.  The countries in CAC include Central Asian Countries namely, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; and countries in the Caucasus, which include Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.  The agricultural sector in CAC has been already reeling under the negative consequences of climate change. With COVID-19, the crisis confronting the agricultural sector has intensified.

Recognizing the role of agriculture in ensuring food security and nutrition, the governments in the CAC region have been taking measures to help agri-food supporters in the context of COVID-19. They have been mobilizing more resources and targeted activities in agricultural sectors that are most vulnerable to the crisis, and are vital for maintaining food and nutrition security.  These include provision of subsidized inputs, such as seeds, chemicals and fertilizers, agricultural machinery, pest management, etc.

ROLE OF EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES IN MITIGATING THE IMPACT OF COVID-19

To mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on agriculture, farmers are looking to Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) for timely and tailored assistance in order to solve their challenges with regard to retaining and maintaining agricultural production and value chains.  A major priority for AEAS is to take into account the needs of vulnerable and low income groups and help them in dealing with the adverse impacts of COVID-19.

There are diverse types of AEAS providers in the CAC region, but mainly they consist of:

• Groups under the ministries and state agencies in charge of agriculture, food security and nutrition, water and land management, livestock and veterinary, crop management, pest management, and others having country-wide network to provide services and coordinate activities;
• Specialized national agencies to disseminate knowledge and information, and develop capacities of agri-food producers;
• Private companies, agro-dealers, input providers, whole sellers, and processing companies of agri-food commodities;
• Agricultural research institutions disseminating research outputs;
• Associations of agri-food producers;
• Non-governmental organizations providing advisory, consultancy services, and capacity development to agri-producers;
• Donor-driven projects supporting rural and agricultural development.

Central Asia and the Caucasus Forum for Rural Advisory Services (CAC-FRAS) organised a survey among its members, from 25 to 30 April, to understand the needs of the rural population who are facing challenges from the impact of COVID-19. The survey showed that under the pandemic the needs of agri-food producers have shifted towards dealing with logistical issues across the value chain. These include agricultural services and inputs delivery as transport and market infrastructure have become less functional and restricted during this period.

www.cac-fras.org

EAS provided by government and non-governmental organizations to agri-food producers in CAC are as follows:

• New varieties and cultivation;
• Pest management, fertilizers, chemicals;
• Veterinary, livestock diseases, better feeding of livestock;
• Meteorological information;
• Natural resources management;
• Information on governmental projects/subsidies;
• Green/environmentally friendly practices;
• Legal advice on tenure rights;
• Community mobilization;
• Sustainable land and water management practices;
• Integrated Natural Resource Management;
• Integrated Pest Management practices;
• Market price information systems;
• Salinity management and land rehabilitation;
• Conservation agriculture technologies/practices;
• Application of natural and chemical fertilizers.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF EAS

The national lockdown and quarantine measures have seriously suspended the activities of EAS in March and first half of April, 2020. During that period many organizations took some time to reorient and diversify the AEAS delivery channels into:

1. Online services, consultancies;
2. Semi online and physically present consultancies, maintaining the COVID-19 protection rules;
3. Physically present consultancies, also following the COVID-19 protection rules.

They also had to mobilize the ICT-based capacities of EAS providers, using online communication tools, and EAS clients also had to accept the new online mode of service delivery. However, a major challenge had been the poor or total absence of internet connectivity in marginal and remote areas.

Even though COVID-19 has been imposing serious adverse economical impact on agri-food production in CAC, it has been shaping the collective understanding and starting to change the mindset of diverse stakeholders and supporters of the agri-food system, as well as the rural population. In the light of these changes new ways of thinking are called for, such as:

1. The poor low income rural and urban agricultural population are the most vulnerable, not only to COVID-19, but to all natural disasters and economic crisis;
2. EAS should not only focus on food security and nutrition aspects, but also on food safety and rural health;
3. Health, natural and economic crises, and disasters are affecting rural well-being and welfare, and thus the agri-food business’ method of working in isolation is not efficient anymore;
4. There is a need to shift from fragmented intervention to more systemic strategies, and risk management is required at all levels: field/local, national, regional and global;
5. Public and private sectors – both at national and international levels – should further strengthen their strategic cooperation;
6. A shift from traditional agri-food production to digital agri-food system is required, so domain and EAS have to support this transition.

As the result of this understanding, both national governments and international development organizations have been allocating additional funds and initiating projects for protecting the rural population from the adverse impacts of COVID-19. For example, in Uzbekistan, the EU allocated budget support of five million USD for Agriculture as a COVID-19 emergency response fund. Similarly the FAO-GFRAS joint project on Experience Capitalization with primary focus on Europe and Central Asia has been advocating for developing the capacity of CAC-FRAS in knowledge management and capitalization of the experience from COVID-19. This will help bring about more efficiency in the activities of EAS providers and also improve the risk-management skills of both providers and clients of EAS.

LESSONS LEARNT SO FAR

EAS need to broaden their work beyond food and nutrition security to strengthening capacities of all value chain stakeholders in managing logistics of food products and agricultural inputs. It should also broaden its engagement with all other actors in the Agricultural Innovation System.

Though EAS has an important role to play in enhancing food security, improving nutrition, reducing poverty and promoting sustainable management of natural resources, their contribution is not yet fully acknowledged or appreciated. But in the background of COVID-19, EAS providers are getting recognized for their services.

Dr Botir Dosov, Chairperson, Steering Committee for Central Asia and the Caucasus Forum for Rural Advisory Services.