Helping Kyrgyz Farmers Increase Incomes and New Employment Opportunities

Major Focus Areas

The USAID Agro Horizon Project works to increase productivity of agricultural producers and link them to markets, improve access to capital in agriculture, and generate employment. The project partners with agribusinesses to develop their supply base, upgrade their facilities and equipment, adopt quality and food safety standards, improve their management systems, and expand their markets.

Objectives

• Increase productivity of agricultural producers and link them to markets

• Increase productivity and markets for agribusinesses
• Improve enabling environment for agriculture-sector growth
• Improve nutritional status of women and children in the zone of influence

Major Accomplishments in Project Years 1 and 2

• 26,000 individuals trained in improved technologies/practices in maize, onion, potato, and apricot production
• 21,000 households benefited
• 30 private enterprises assisted, including rural advisory services (RAS) and advisory service providers (ASPs), cooperatives, and private entrepreneurs
• Aravan Agro Service (AAS) assisted to sell 600 tons of early potato resulting in 3.5 million Kyrgyz Soms (KGS) in profit compared to a loss of 4.2 million KGS in 2015
• B2B events in Bishkek, Osh, and Almaty in August 2016, led to over $5.76 million worth of contracts
• 5,926 smallholder farmers received in-kind grants: seeds, fertilizers, plant protection chemicals, machinery services
• Eight Machinery Service Providers assisted to expand capacity (30 percent cost-share in new and better machines)
• Apricot farmers have increased their yields by 20 percent and maize farmers are expected to obtain two times higher yields
• Marketing support is ongoing for apricots and maize
• 1,600 women-headed households supported with kitchen gardens for improved household nutrition

Refocused Market-Driven Approach for Years 3 and 4

• Expand markets for smallholder farmers by attracting investors to establish buyer platforms in the project’s zone of influence. These buyer platforms will be in the form of processing, logistics, consolidation, and similar facilities.

• Expand the markets of processors and other already existing agribusinesses
• Support productivity improvement at the farm level based on market requirements. Ensure that the appropriate logistics and supply chains are established between farmers and buyers and that they are supported such that sustainable and strategic partnerships are promoted.
• Work with lead firms that have demonstrated business capability in developing firm-based agricultural value chains that may or may not be within the livestock, fruits, and vegetable value chains; the lead firm will provide co-investment in the development of the supply base and the processing or logistics facility, and will take responsibility for the marketing of the product
• Reduce barriers to access markets through market regulations and requirement awareness campaigns, product quality, and production compliance to standards, and improved access to standards certification

*Note: The project ended in September 2018