Uzbekistan—USAID Agricultural Value Chain Activity (Uzbekistan AVC)

Uzbekistan AVC capitalizes on the achievements of USAID’s Uzbekistan AgLinks (2007–2011) and AgLinks Plus (2011–2015) projects, which were implemented by DAI. We are scaling up support to post-harvest handling and fostering new business partnerships while expanding opportunities for women’s entrepreneurship and employment. Uzbekistan AVC co-invests with stakeholders at key points along the chain—including local institutes, agrarian universities, and service providers such as agro-input dealers, nursery extension staff, pruning groups, consolidators, and cold chain operators—to ensure scalability and sustainability.

We work to improve the quality and volume of agricultural production and post-harvest handling and production, facilitate market linkages, and link educational institutions with private sector demand.

Sample Activities

• Provide technical assistance in best agricultural practices at demo plots for crops such as cherry, peach, apple, grape, pomegranate, tomato, cucumber, onion, and carrot.
• Invest in the full operation of Uzbekistan’s new tissue culture lab and supplemental support to government institutions to propagate disease-free, true-to-type plant materials locally and distribute them to certified nursery operators.
• Use the MEVA 3.0 platform to develop a social marketing forum to allow users to access up-to-date information on quantities, qualities, and pricing for horticulture to drive marketing decisions for farmers, cold store owners and managers, exporters, and buyers.
• Facilitate cold chain demo site activities, workshops targeted to women, and exchange programs for cold storage operators.
• Build linkages between producers and local supermarkets, take advantage of local trade events, and develop relationships with buyers in new markets.
• Conduct AVC horticulture assessment and mapping with agrarian university professors and students, and develop hands-on production and post-harvest learning at universities.
• Introduce new ICT tools to help facilitate learning.

Select Results

• Incentivized more than 10,000 horticultural producers and processors to adopt new technologies and practices, improving agricultural practices on 15,600 hectares of horticultural farms.
• Leveraged $7.9 million in private sector investment in the establishment of new orchards, installation of water saving technologies, expansion of the cold chain network, and upgrades in product packaging, marketing, and branding to meet international standards. This brings the project’s cumulative private sector investment leveraged to $14.3 million, which has resulted in a 213 percent increase in the value of exported goods.
• Provided 67,700 hours of training and facilitated the emergence of 51 new consulting service providers, contributing to a 67 percent increase in farm yields, increasing income among targeted farmers by 107 percent.