The Kyrgyz Agro-Input Enterprise Development Follow-On project is helping to counter setbacks to agricultural intensification in the wake of Kyrgyz political and social disruptions in the spring of 2010. Mirroring its predecessor projects, which ran from 2001-2010, IFDC is mobilizing and supporting private enterprise entrepreneurs, farmers and commodity chains that offer the greatest potential for improving sustainable agricultural production and food security. The two-year (2010-2012) Follow-On project is also focusing on improving employment opportunities, particularly in the southern regions of the country.
The previous two-year Kyrgyz Agro-Input Enterprise Development II (KAED II) project demonstrated how a private sector, market-based response to the food crisis of 2008 could provide cost-effective support to farmers in need, while simultaneously providing the incentives and foundations for increased production and incomes. Under the award-winning KAED II project, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided emergency relief by funding improved seed varieties, livestock feed and fertilizer, which were distributed at a subsidized cost through private sector value chain participants. Farmers who would use the inputs most effectively to increase production were also included. In 2009, these efforts, combined with favorable weather conditions, contributed to a record wheat harvest that met the nation’s annual demand for the first time in years. The Follow-On project is assisting the Kyrgyz agriculture sector to recover to those record highs, with a projected one million metric tons (mt) of wheat to be produced in 2011. The project is also further expanding distribution systems and networks to achieve sustained agricultural independence.
The Follow-On project is focusing on those 20,000 progressive farmers who are planting the USAID-funded improved wheat varieties and 80,000 other farmers who are adopting better farming and animal care practices as a result of various project initiatives. Among those initiatives is the continuing public outreach campaign that has made the USAID/KAED brand so widely recognized in the country. As institutional support, a strategically designed set of interventions is improving farmer awareness of best agricultural practices and knowledge of, and access to, yield-enhancing agricultural production technologies and related support services. The Follow-On project is also introducing a market-friendly voucher system and revolving fund for the distribution of the fertilizer procured under the project; it will target progressive farmers who have the greatest potential to double national average wheat yields.
The recent Global Development Alliance between USAID and the Eurasia Group LLC Switzerland is a result of persistent efforts to attract international companies to the relatively small Kyrgyz market. This alliance has already proven to be a mutually beneficial and effective relationship that will be expanded under the project. Moreover, this alliance serves as a prime example of public-private partnership stimulus in such promising areas as poultry production and the related potential for growth in protein-rich crops for feed. The Follow-On project is creating additional public-private partnerships that will facilitate technology introduction and business linkage development – both of which are essential to market sustainability.
As another critical component of the project, IFDC and USAID are simultaneously launching the Kyrgyzstan Local Economic Development Program (KLDP) with the Follow-On project. This program is stimulating rapid, diversified and sustained agro-economic growth at the local level through advancements in Kyrgyzstan’s business and investment environment. KLDP is increasing municipal finance and capital investment and improving the competitiveness of sectors with the greatest economic potential, specifically agriculture and agro-processing. KLDP is upgrading workforce education, replicating best practices and implementing economic and administrative reforms at the national level. Together, the two projects are working to replicate the Markaz Joint Agricultural Initiative (MJAI), which transformed degraded land into productive farms and helped to generate lasting employment opportunities.
USAID awarded $4.1 million to IFDC to implement the Seed Assistance Voucher Program in the Kyrgyz Republic. The program is implemented through the Follow-On project jointly with the Kyrgyz Republic’s Ministry of Agriculture. The goals of the project are to increase agriculture productivity and farmers’ incomes by providing farmers access to improved seed during the 2011 two-month spring planting season and by promoting market participation by more progressive smallholder farmers.
Supported under USAID’s Economic Development Fund, the program is providing seeds to approximately 30,000 selected farmers. An estimated 160 agricultural cooperatives and 81 seed enterprises in 42 rayons (districts) in all seven oblasts (provinces) throughout Kyrgyzstan will be involved in the program.
IFDC’s strategic approach is to use a voucher program, implemented in a market-based context, to provide targeted beneficiary farmers timely access to high quality seed, procured from seed farms. Each participating farmer will receive a voucher that can be exchanged for the indicated amount of commodity at the seed distribution point.
Additional components that will support the continued IFDC/USAID successes in Kyrgyzstan include: land rehabilitation; new private partnerships to promote poultry and high-value feed crops; continued efforts to improve farming practices and sustainable support systems; collaboration with incentive-based service providers such as the Agribusiness Association of Kyrgyzstan (AAK) and other organizations; and a solid public outreach program.
Kyrgyz Agro-Input Enterprise Development Follow-On Project Information
Invitation for Tender
Download Invitation for Tender
Articles
Advanced Technologies Improved Farmers' Livelihoods (Taken from IFDC Report Volume 37, No.1)
KAED Follow-On Project Extend Seed/Voucher Program (Taken from IFDC Report Volume 37, No.1)
Roy Visits Successful KAED Project in Kyrgyzstan (Taken from IFDC Report Volume 36, No.4)
2011 Marks 10th Anniversary of IFDC in Kyrgyzstan (Taken from IFDC Report Volume 36, No.4)
USAID Mission Director Visits Land Reclamation Site in Kyrgyzstan and USAID, IFDC and Kyrgyz Ministry of Agriculture Launch Seed Assistance Voucher Program (Taken from IFDC Report Volume 36, No.2)
USAID's Kyrgyzstan Follow-On Project Makes Early Progress (Taken from IFDC Report Volume 36, No.1)
Press Releases
USAID and IFDC Launch Seed Assistance Voucher Program in the Kyrgyz Republic
Kyrgyz Agro-Input Enterprise Development Follow-On Project Continues Food Security Mission
Additional Information
Letter of Gratitude from the Minister of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic (Russian and English)