Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 20 / Trend A.Akhundov /
International humanitarian organization Oxfam and one of the world's leaders on food and household chemical products market, the British-Dutch company Unilever made a number of proposals to increase competition between small farmers and improve conditions for agricultural production in Azerbaijan.
In the course of the event titled "The development of agriculture and investment opportunities in Azerbaijan" held on Wednesday, the international humanitarian organization Oxfam presented the results obtained within last two years from demonstration plots where local experts along with Unilever agronomists planted different varieties of white onions. Within the Sunrise project, Oxfam and Unilever have worked with small farmers in Barda, Tartar and Agdam regions. One of the main objectives of the development of these sites was to identify varieties of onion with high dry matter to explore the use of onion powder from Azerbaijan in the production of Knorr products. Knorr is the best selling brand of Unilever.
"Our experience in working with small entrepreneurs shows that despite the small gains, they face with high production costs. Prices for local agricultural products are four times higher than the base price in the world markets. However, the experience of work with small farmers shows that investments in training, technology and equipment may improve productivity and product quality and reduce costs dramatically. The state may play an important role in increase in competition between small farmers and improvement of conditions of agricultural production in Azerbaijan. Development of small-scale agriculture will make a great contribution to provision of national food security," the event noted.
In particular, it is proposed to invest in creation of experimental stations, providing recommendations and verifying in a systematic way the compliance of certain agricultural products to the requirements of foreign markets.
The proposals also provide for creation of analytical laboratories with international accreditation, to check for pesticides, phytosanitary regulations, GDM standards (green development mechanism), as well as for compliance of these indicators with European and global standards. It is proposed to comply the rules of the use of pesticides in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization, the European Union and the United States, increase attention to the infrastructure of water supply to various spheres of agriculture, adopt a law "On Agricultural Cooperation", support and finance trainings in the field of agronomy for small farmers.
