Adoption of Climate Technology in the Agrifood Sector of Kyrgyzstan
On November 2nd, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) held a joint seminar on the introduction of climate technologies in the agrifood sector of Kyrgyzstan. The workshop was an opportunity to discuss findings of a new FAO/EBRD study on climate technologies in Kyrgyzstan’s agrifood sector.
Today, the fight against climate change is a key global priority: climate change has a direct and indirect impact on agricultural productivity, including changes in rainfall patterns, droughts, floods and the geographical spread of pests and diseases.
“While agriculture and food systems are partly to blame for temperature rises, the sector can have an important impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Dorjee Kinlay, FAO Representative to the Kyrgyz Republic. “In particular, the sector also needs to accelerate its efforts to adapt to climate change, especially among family farmers who are the most vulnerable to its effects.”
The EBRD and FAO recognize that addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation in the agrifood sector will require radical changes in food production systems. The use of climate technologies is a key element in this transition to more sustainable food systems.
Due to the close cooperation of the EBRD and FAO, this workshop was arranged in cooperation with local authorities and has become a platform for dialogue between stakeholders from private sector, government organizations, research institutions, international development organizations and civil society. All these stakeholders have a role to play in supporting adoption of climate technologies in Kyrgyzstan.
During the workshop, EBRD presented its Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change (FINTECC) programme and, in particular, the KYRSEFF financial facility that supports green technology adoption in the Kyrgyz Republic. “EBRD has made a strong commitment in 2015 with its Green Economy Transition approach which has set a target of 40% share of green financing in total EBRD financing by 2020,” said Jyldyz Galieva, Senior Banker, EBRD. “In the Kyrgyz Republic, EBRD has made substantial financial and technical support available through a number of projects, which intend to help the country accelerate its transition to a green economy”.
The workshop’s presentations highlighted the large share of agriculture emissions in total country emissions, estimated at around 30 percent of the total. In particular, agriculture emissions have been growing quickly due to the expansion in livestock numbers in Kyrgyzstan (around 50 percent increase in agriculture emissions over the past 15 years).
Most importantly, the workshop focused on solutions and highlighted the importance of adopting climate technologies and practices along key supply chains to reduce carbon emissions, increase productivity and improve resilience of food systems.
The different sessions discussed several climate technologies, their degree of adoption in Kyrgyzstan, mitigation and adaptation potential and key challenges in promoting further adoption in the country. According to the findings of the study, there is a huge potential for investments in climate technologies in the Kyrgyz Republic. Participants highlighted the increasingly challenging situation of the country’s pastures and need to accelerate adoption of best practices in pasture management, as well as the potential of conservation agriculture to store carbon and simultaneously make crop production more resilient to droughts. Moreover, the discussions indicated that while livestock related climate technologies hold much promise there is need to modernize the sector and that renewables technology promotion in the agrifood sector would require policy reforms and efficient financial mechanisms to support technology uptake.
FAO and EBRD remain committed to support the Kyrgyz Republic in accelerating the adoption of modern climate technologies in order to reduce GHG emissions and increase the agrifood sector’s resilience to climate change.
