http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/en/ This presentation was presented during the Eurasian Soil Partnership workshop that was held on 29 February - 02 March 2016 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and it was made by Kamiljon T. Akramov.

1. IFPRI’s Research, Capacity Strengthening
and Network Building Experience in Central
Asia
Kamiljon T. Akramov, Ph.D.
International Forum on Eurasian Food Security and Nutrition Network and
Eurasian Soil Partnership
February 29 – March 2, 2016
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

2. Outline
• Prior research activities
• Collaboration with ECFS and other partners in
in Central Asia

3. Prior research activities
• Research on policy and institutional issues in late 1990s and
2000s
• Research on institutional change and rural services in
Kyrgyzstan funded by BMZ (2007-2010)
– Collaborators: Humboldt University Berlin, National Academy of
Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic and National Agency on Self-
Governance of the Kyrgyz Republic
• Analytical support to USAID’s Feed the Future program in
Tajikistan (2011-2012)
– Collaborators: TAAS, Institute of Agricultural Economics
– Findings contributed to the development of the Feed the Future
program activities in southern Tajikistan

4. Prior research activities (cont.)
• Regional Strategic and Analytical Knowledge Support System
in Asia (ReSAKSS Asia) involves Central Asian policy-makers
and researchers
– Collaborators: CACAARI, University of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan),
Institute of Agricultural Economics (Tajikistan), independent
researchers from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
– Representatives from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan also participate in
conferences and workshops

5. IFPRI’s collaboration with ECFS in Central
Asia

6. Agricultural Policy and Food Security in Central Asia project
(Central Asia Program) funded by Russian Government
• Started in the second half of 2013
• Policy research components
– Economywide modeling
– Climate change and food security
– Assessing food and nutrition security, agriculture-nutrition
linkages and value chains
– Emerging issues in agricultural development and food
security
• Capacity strengthening component
– Collaborative research
– Formal training courses
Page 6

7. Economy-wide modeling
• Developing national SAM and CGE models with
disaggregated agricultural sector
– Kyrgyzstan in collaboration with UCA (2015)
– Tajikistan in progress
• Kyrgyzstan's Accession to the EAEU: Measuring Economy-
Wide Impacts and Uncertainties
• CGE model for Tajikistan will be used for evaluation of food
security and nutrition related issues

8. Climate change and its impact on agriculture
and food security
• IFPRI & ECFS jointly organized a training course in
Moscow in 2015
• Global IMPACT model calibrated for Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
• Calibrated model is used to examine potential effects of
climate change on agricultural production and food
security in the region
• The findings of the study are being prepared for
publication in an edited IFPRI book
• National partners
– ISE KBTU, UCA, WIUT, and independent researchers

9. Agriculture-nutrition linkages and value
chains
• Focus countries: Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
• Dietary patterns of households
• Agricultural diversity, dietary diversity and nutrition
• Dairy value chain survey in Kyrgyzstan: farmers, milk
collectors, and processors
• Midline population survey in FtF zone of influence
(Tajikistan)
– 12 districts, 2000 households
• Partners
– CSR (Kyrgyzstan) and Zerkalo Analytical Group (Tajikistan)

10. Agriculture-nutrition linkages in Tajikistan (main
findings)
• Empirical evidence suggests that
– Agricultural diversity is positively associated with dietary diversity, and
– Dietary diversity is in turn correlated with child nutritional outcomes
and this relationship depends on child’s age
• Evidence also suggests that there is a negative association
between household dietary diversity and share of land
allocated to cotton and wheat in the district
• Households in communities located further away from urban
centers tend to have lower dietary diversity
Source: Akramov & Malek (forthcoming)

11. Emerging issues in agriculture and food security
in Central Asia
• Agricultural and structural transformation
– Changing patterns of production and employment
– Shifts in productivity
– Spatial transformation
• Incentives and distortions in agricultural sector
• Migration and remittances and their impact on food
security and household welfare

12. Remittances from Russia
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Totalamountofremittances,
millions(USD)
Year
Uzbekistan Tajikistan Kyrgyz Republic
Source: Central Bank of Russia
Akramov & Park, 2016

13. Exchange rates in Central Asia, 2010=100
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
110.0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Kazakstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan
Source: Authors' depiction using data from respective Central Banks; data for 2015 as of November 10, 2015
Akramov & Park, 2016

14. Capacity Strengthening
• Collaborative research
– Joint publications with researchers from the region
• Formal training courses and workshops
– Economy-wide modeling
– Applied econometric analysis in 2014 & 2015: http://resakss-
asia.org/events/training-course-applied-econometric-analysis-summer-
school-young-economistsresearchers
• Analytical and information tools
– Kyrgyzstan Spatial (launched in spring 2015): http://kyrgyzstanspatial.org/
– Tajikistan Spatial (in progress)

15. Major outreach activities
• International Policy Research Conference on Agricultural
Transformation and Food Security in Central Asia, April 8-
9, 2014, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
– http://resakss-asia.org/events/policy-research-conference-
agricultural-transformation-and-food-security-central-asia
• International Conference on Agriculture and Food
Systems, Climate Change and Nutrition in CIS Countries
Featuring Global Nutrition Report 2015, February 11,
2016
– http://resakss-asia.org/events/agriculture-food-systems-
climate-change-and-nutrition-cis-countries-featuring-global

16. Thank you