Strengthening Resilience of the Agriculture Sector Project

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Agriculture is the main stay of Tajikistan’s economy. It constitutes 20 percent of the country’s GDP and provides jobs for about 61 percent of the population. Yet, it has largely remained subsistence and underdeveloped characterized by low productivity and limited use of improved technologies. The food sector is small and fragmented, contributing to large food and farm input imports. The country imports about 75 percent of food consumed and over 50 percent of the value of agricultural inputs, including seeds, seedlings, animal breeds, fertilizers, and farm machinery. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified development challenges exposing the poor performance of the agricultural sector and the weak early waring, preparedness and response system of pubic institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has also disrupted migrant remittances and trade activities of the highly remittance dependent economy of Tajikistan thereby contributing to declining migrants’ transfers and ultimately to contracted household consumption. The proposed project will be centered around strengthening the resilience of Tajikistan’s agriculture by financing public institutions to deliver more and better services to farmers and agribusinesses. It aims at increasing domestic food self-reliance, strengthening the foundation for increased production and export competitiveness of the growing horticulture sector, and improving MoA’s and other relevant pubic institutions’ early warning, preparedness and response capacity. The project also aims at enhancing public institutions’ strategic engagement with private sector by supporting the the development of a viable sector of private micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in rural areas and generate employment opportunities in regions with few legal alternatives. . The geography of the project activities will be nationwide. The project aims to achieve these by financing following components: Component 1: Strengthen seed, seedling and planting material systems: The objective of this component is to support the development of a vibrant system for seed, seedling, and planting materials, which contributes to increased availability and use of new, improved and farmer-preferred seeds, seedlings and planting materials. The approach to be followed in supporting the development of vibrant seed/seedling sector by the proposed project is the Integrated Seed Sector Development approach. This approach will enable to address bottlenecks in the seed/seedling value chain across various seed systems, including formal and informal, private and public, etc. The activities for this component will be country wide, and this component will support: (i) Enabling environment (ii) Research and development (iii) Multiplication (iv) Quality assurance Component 2: Support investments in agri-logistics to enhance horticulture value chains: The objective of this component is to support investments in agri-logistical centers (ALCs) to enhance high-value horticulture value chains, so horticulture production becomes more competitive. The component will support investments for horticulture development initiated under ACP and REDP and derive lessons from similar investments in the neighboring Uzbekistan through investments in several agri-logistical centers, with options for public-private partnerships in their management and operation. These investments will generate climate co-benefits by promoting agricultural diversification towards horticulture, improving food distribution and food safety, reducing food loss and waste, and making construction climate proof and energy efficient. Location and design of these agri-logistical centers will be confirmed during preparation. (i) Support the development and operation of ALCs(ii) Capacity building for operation and management of ALCs and awareness raising Component 3: Build public capacity for crises prevention and management: The objective of this component is to strengthen the crisis prevention and management capacity of selected public institutions. The COVID-19 outbreak caught many by surprise, exposing weaknesses of the current early warning and agri-food sector monitoring and response capacity of the government. They could not provide reliable estimates of available food/inputs stocks and accurate forecasts for future harvests, causing food hoarding and heightened food price volatility. With amplified climate change, crises such as COVID-19 pandemic will occur even more often. The proposed project will strengthen selected/key public institutions for enhanced capacity, resilience and better early warning and response, plant protection and quarantine, and locust prevention/eradication, as well as sector planning, monitoring and evaluation through digitalization and capacity building. The support will include investments in digital and laboratory infrastructure of the MoA and other selected public agencies and institutions and capacity building for better early warning and agri-food sector monitoring as well as effective response. (i) Real-time monitoring of agricultural production, land use, and agrometeorology(ii) Soil fertility management (iii) Crop protection and locust control Component 4: Project management and coordination: This component will support project management, coordination, M&E, and implementation of safeguards and fiduciary aspects of the project. The proposed project would utilize the capacity of the existing PIU for ACP at MoA, who are already well experienced with implementation of the World Bank projects.