Key elements of FAO’s work in Europe and Central Asia – combating land and soil...
Regional Initiatives
As economic reforms in the 1990s shifted land ownership into the hands of private smallholders, family farmers became the predominant source of agricultural production in the region. To address the absence of well-developed institutional support, FAO is implementing a Regional Initiative on Empowering Smallholders and Family Farms for Improved Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction.
As countries seek to expand local trade, increase political and economic ties to the European Union or join the World Trade Organization, they must integrate their trade systems with new markets and comply with new standards. Regional and global integration is imperative as the region becomes an increasingly important supplier of agricultural goods to international markets. This initiative helps countries understand trade implications, implement trade policy and engage in trade agreements.
Stories from the field
Farmers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are constantly innovating, adapting their farming techniques to cope with unfavorable weather or environmental conditions. But their efforts are far from systematic, and there is little government support for what they do.
With natural disasters on the increase worldwide, and as disasters grow in both scope and severity, many countries are desperate to find better ways of managing disaster risk. Bosnia and Herzegovina has found some answers with the recent conclusion of an FAO project on that very subject, made possible thanks to a grant of US$ 45,700 from the Czech Republic.
A total of 7,000 three-week-old chickens are being distributed this week to small farms in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Provision of the birds is the latest move by FAO to help vulnerable households whose livelihoods have been compromised by the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.