By Trend

Currently the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Partnership and Liaison Office supports several projects on local food promotion in Azerbaijan, the FAO official told Trend.

The FAO noted that it implements national, regional, and global projects in Azerbaijan.

"These projects mainly include technical assistance in the FAO mandated areas, including sustainable food systems, food security, agricultural development, local food promotion, natural resource management, fishery, forestry and so on," the FAO official said.

The official noted that FAO and Azerbaijan government has signed a FAO-Azerbaijan Partnership Program in 2015 totaling with $10 million that aims at reinforcing the interaction and synergy between the two Parties towards the achievement of the SDGs in Azerbaijan.

"At present, 7 projects are operationally active supporting the government in the improvement of the cattle and sheep breeding, hazelnut growing, potato production, youth employment and women empowerment," the official said.

Additionally, the official noted, there are on-going projects on local food promotion and development of the agricultural advisory services funded by EU. Along with this, FAO Azerbaijan is implementing a number of projects on natural resource and environmental management closely collaborating with Global Environmental Facility and Green Climate Fund.

"During implementation of all mentioned projects FAO is closely collaborating Government of Azerbaijan represented mainly by the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Ministry of Emergency Cases, State Statistical Committee, Food Safety Agency, as well its sub-ordinate state agencies/organizations such as Agrarian Credit and Development Agency, Agrarian Research Center, Agrarian Service Agency etc," the official added.