The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have joined forces to improve farmland management and strengthen food security in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The two institutions have launched an initiative named Greening Kyrgyzstan’s Economy: Know More, Act Better, Enhance Results, which will foster climate-smart agriculture through the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology.

The EBRD Food and Agribusiness team is supporting the project, strengthened by the active participation of three local aggregators, Kaindy-Kant (sugar beet processing), Kirbi (potato processing) and Dan Agro (pulses/legume processing). This cooperation will enable the initiative to serve more than 5,000 farmers who supply these aggregators.

The GIS technology will be administered and hosted by the State Agency for Land Resources, Cadastre, Geodesy and Cartography and used by a wide range of farming-sector stakeholders, from the Ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture and Food Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic to farmers and aggregators of agricultural produce. It will help users in numerous areas of their work, including identifying sown crops, measuring the efficiency of land use, estimating potential productivity levels and monitoring crop rotation and sustainable water use.

With financial assistance from the Ministry of Digital Development of the Kyrgyz Republic, the State Agency will also develop an app for farmers that will improve accessibility and simplify the adoption of the GIS system at a grassroots level. Alongside this, the EBRD and the FAO will deploy a free e-extension app delivering advisory services.

This collaboration between the EBRD, the FAO and the State Agency promises to offer significant benefits for the Kyrgyz Republic, which relies heavily on agriculture, with the sector employing nearly half of the national workforce and making up around 12% of GDP.

The initiative will also offer environmental benefits by increasing efficiency in a sector that is responsible for about 37% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, helping the Kyrgyz Republic work towards its Paris Agreement commitment of reducing emissions by 16% by 2030.

The project is also expected to improve food security for the country’s growing population, which is projected to reach 9.6 million by 2050.

By ensuring data-driven, climate-smart land management, the Greening Kyrgyzstan’s Economy initiative will help rural communities adapt to climate change, strengthen agribusiness supply chains and contribute to broader economic growth. Aggregators will benefit from having more accurate planting data, helping them prepare for annual harvests and better understand their financing needs.

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