Uzbek Farmers Record US Best Practices

USAID’s Community Connections program and AgLinks Project collaborated on a three-week training program on contemporary agro-technology in fruit cultivation in California during summer 2010. The Uzbek “community” consisted of 10 people from Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley, including farmers, public sector agricultural pro-fessionals, food safety professionals, agricultural research institute managers and researchers, plus private sector actors in fruit processing. The Fer-ghana Valley is known as the gem of Central Asian agriculture and is famous for its sweet and fragrant fruits and nuts, especially apricots, cher-ries, apples, peaches and walnuts. Trainees benefited from the insights and experience of the best fruit extension specialists and private sector experts from the biggest fruit and nut producing state in the United States.

The training program consisted of hands-on field visits in and around Davis and Fresno, California that were directly relevant to topics introduced during classroom sessions. Training content cov-ered best techniques in fruit tree nursery man-agement, production, postharvest handling, drying, irrigation systems and pest control. Tech-nical translation, including questions and discussions were giv-en in English and Uzbek.

Eight of the ten trainees used digital camcorders to record field site visits and orchard training sessions to share with others upon returning to Uzbekistan. Fazliddin Sultanov, agronomist, made DVDs of all his photos and video shorts to share with his neighbors and friends. These video materials have been used by AgLniks for training on fruit production. Marifat Nazarova, adapted the idea of private labeling from visiting Stephens Farmhouse in Yuba City, California and conducted a training program on small-scale fruit processing for 35 farmers in Na-mangan Province. One of the processors, Olmaxon Egamber-dieva, developed her own private label and sells products in her local shop. Sales of the labeled products increased immediately and significantly compared to products without labels.

Uzbek Farmers Record US Best Practices (Photo and Caption) (PDF, 170KB)