August 2015

Source: ICARDA Seed Info No. 49

National governments are giving increasing importance to seed security within the framework of food security to meet farmers’ annual seed requirements, in times of normality or natural disasters. The Government of Azerbaijan demonstrated its commitment to seed sector development by providing substantial subsidies to seed-producing farms. The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) requested FAO to support the development of the seed sector in Azerbaijan and FAO and MoA launched a Technical Cooperation Program project ‘Support to Seed Sector Development in Azerbaijan’ for implementation. The project aimed at developing a seed sector operating at internationally accepted norms and procedures in variety testing and registration; seed production, processing, and marketing; and quality assurance. FAO will provide technical support in establishing variety testing, release mechanisms, and seed certification schemes. The project will also establish a close cooperation with the World Bank-funded Agriculture Competitiveness Improvement Project that intends to provide investment support in strengthening the infrastructure of the national variety registration and seed certification agencies.

There will be a series of workshops and training during the project where a selected group of technicians and farmers will receive training in various aspects of seed production, processing, and marketing. The project inception workshop was held on 22 May 2015, in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss the project objectives with a wide group of stakeholders. During the workshop, all project activities were discussed and experiences shared. The inception workshop was an important milestone in the process of defining the shape of the new seed sector to be developed within this project.

Elif Sogut and Hafiz Muminjanov, FAO-SEC, Ivedik Cad No 55, 06170 Yenimahalle Ankara, Turkey; e-mail: elif.sogut@fao.org

Website: http://www.icarda.org

Published: August 13, 2015