CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Tikhonova, Anastasia |
|---|---|
| Title | Mechanisms for Transition to Climate Smart Agriculture in Central Asia |
| Summary | High rates of population growth in the countries of Central Asia, land degradation, water problems, shrinkage of the cropping areas, and climate change are jeopardising food security of the region. Agriculture, comprising substantial share of GDP and employing a large proportion of population in the countries of CA, requires significant transformation to climate smart practice. However, the scope of climate smart agriculture dissemination in the region remains very limited. The methodology used included a combination of diverse qualitative research methods: expert focus group discussions, interviews with different kinds of stakeholders (ministry officials, national and international experts in the field, local administration, academia, NGOs and civil society), in-depth interviews with research institutions specialists and farmers, online questionnaire and field visits. The Kyrgyz Republic was chosen as a narrow-down focus country, were the in-depth research was conducted. The data was analysed with the help of specially developed theoretical analytical framework, combining functional and structural analysis of agricultural innovation systems. The research identified that the main constraints to CSA adoption by Kyrgyz farmers are: lack of central initiative and willingness to support CSA; underdeveloped interactions with potential donors of CSA projects; low capacity of international actors to design the projects (including, identifying applicable CSA methods, training extension, performing evaluation and upscaling). The second level of importance gain the “infrastructural” constraints: poor financial infrastructure (scarce public funding of agricultural research and knowledge dissemination); low quality of knowledge infrastructure (research, education and knowledge dissemination on CSA); poor quality of physical infrastructure and inefficient legislative/policy framework for CSA. The proposed solution includes creation of the system of “agro-clusters” in Kyrgyzstan, as a center-led initiative and a large transformative project, which would simultaneously address identified obstacles and enable rapid upscaling of CSA in the country. |
| Supervisor | Mnatsakanian, Ruben |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/tikhonova_anastasia.pdf |
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