Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily,com) -- On 25 April 2024, the European Union granted 6 million euros (nearly 82 billion soums) to the Government of Uzbekistan, as the country made progress with its agricultural reforms and maintained a stable macro-economic outlook.

The grant of 6 million euros helped to incentivize the adoption of National Food Security and Healthy Nutrition Strategy and Guidelines on Programme Budgeting. In addition to the grant, technical assistance funded by the European Union supported the Ministry of Agriculture in planning reforms.

More grants are expected this and next year, as an agreement between the EU and the Government of Uzbekistan foresees the disbursement of a total of 20 million euros to support the implementation of the National Agriculture Development Strategy for 2020-2030. The overall objective is to support the transition towards market-orientated and sustainable agri-food sector that provides more jobs and incomes to the people of Uzbekistan and increases access to safe and nutritious food.

‘’The agri-food sector is critical for Uzbekistan’s economy and is a major source of employment. Moreover, family farms produce the majority meat and vegetables consumed by Uzbek citizens. Therefore, we focus on those reforms that enable these dehkan farms to prosper, to adapt to a changing climate, to protect the environment, to produce healthy food, and to become part of local and global value chains. The grant funding together with other European Union initiatives such as GSP+ will also help to boost the exports to the EU’’ highlights EU Ambassador to Uzbekistan Charlotte Adriaen.

A sustainable agri-food sector is one of three strategic priorities of the EU Multi-annual Indicative Programme for Uzbekistan (2021-2027). The other priorities cover effective governance and inclusive, green and digital growth. Since 2021, the programme has already allocated nearly 76 million euros (nearly 1 trillion soums) to Uzbekistan.

The European Union is the main provider of grant funding to the agri-food sector in Uzbekistan. In addition to 20 million euros of grants to be disbursed, the EU has already supported the reform with a budget of 32.5 million euros to the sector between 2020 and 2023.