A FAO online survey titled 'Central Asia activties on climate smart agriculture' was conducted during 6 weeks in May to June 2016. The survey was filled in by 131 respondents from 28 countries. It's aim was to take stock of the challenges posed by climate change to the agriculture sector in the Central Asian countries, of which the summary of results is outlined in this presentation. © FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. Summary of the Survey
“Central Asia activities
on Climate-Smart
Agriculture”
Federica Matteoli, Natural Resource Officer, FAO

2. Gender distribution and participants
131 responses to the survey from 28 countries
 Geographic distribution of
participants: 21% in Kirgizstan,
17% in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
 Gender: 63.36% of male and
36.64% of female
 Work related countries: 28.24%
in Kirgizstan and Tajikistan,
24.43% in all countries of Central
Asia, 21.37% in Kazakhstan,
19.08 in Uzbekistan, 16.03%
doesn’t work in these countries
and 6.11% in Turkmenistan.

3. Top three challenges posed by climate change in different
sectors:
Crop production sector
1. Increased impact of natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, storms on crop production and
agriculture infrastructure (66.95%)
2. Reduced water resources due to water scarcity and droughts (64.41%)
3. Soils – erosion and nutrient depletion (61.02%)
Livestock production sector
1. Reduced availability of drinking water and forage for livestock due to water scarcity and
droughts (65.25%)
2. Increased spread of livestock diseases and parasites (43.22%)
3. Livestock health and welfare – due to heat stress, reduced fertility and milk production (33.05%)
Forestry sector
1. Increased impact of natural hazards, such as droughts, wild fires, flooding and storms (55.59%)
2. Reduced growth and productivity of forests (42.37%)
3. Increased insect outbreaks to weaken and kill trees, which result in reduced storage of CO2
(35.59%)

4. Top three challenges posed by climate change in the fisheries and
aquaculture sector 55.93% of responses indicated that this is not
field of their expertise, are:
1. Increased salinity of
inland water resources
due to temperature
increase (27.97%)
2. Impact of natural
hazards. E.g. storms,
flooding, droughts on
inland water fish stocks
and habitats (27.12%)
3. Timing of reproduction
and migration of fish
species due to changes in
temperature and seasons
(21.19%)

5. 4 agricultural and rural development intervention
priorities, needed to address climate change
1. Aquaculture
management (3.75)
2. Bio-energy
management (3.20)
3. Emission
measurement and
fisheries
management both
(2.92)
4. Pest management
(2.88)

6. The main constraints for transitioning to more sustainable,
resilient and efficient production systems
Policy and institutional constraints
1. Lack or limited institutional cooperation, collaboration and communication among relevant stakeholders to
ensure effective and efficient implementation (75.45%)
2. Lack or limited available mechanisms for knowledge sharing and capacity building to transfer knowledge to
farmers, extension services and other related entities. (73.64$)
3. Lack or limited institutional planning capacity (50.91%)
Socio-economic constraints
1. Lack or limited access to extension services (51.82%)
2. Limited access to credit, insurance (50.91%)
3. Lack or limited access to information related to socio-economic mechanisms (credit, insurance, etc.)
(42.73%)
Environmental constraints
1. Land degradation (86.36%)
2. Water related issues, including water scarcity (68.18%)
3. Soil erosion (60.91%)

7. 4 policy and institutional support mechanisms needed to overcome
barriers and allow for rural development transitions
1. Support performance of
cooperatives/producer
organizations to further
adoption/uptake of CSA
practices (2.98)
2. Strengthening farmers’
inclusion and leadership in CSA
knowledge systems (2.84)
3. Decision tools for prioritizing
CSA investment options (2.68)
4. Individual capacity
development and technical
assistance for the adoption of
new practices/technologies
(2.66)

8. Stakeholders play an important role in their country in
the fields of Climate smart agriculture
1. International
organizations
(67.65%)
2. Donor funded
projects (66.67%)
3. Governments and
state agencies
(61.76%)
4. Universities and
Research Institutions
(58.82%)

9. The 4 most important knowledge sharing and capacity building
improvements that need to be made in their country
1. Identification of
economic supports
through credit and
insurance
2. Creation of information
mechanisms for ministry
staff, rural civil society
and private sector(3.02)
3. Analysis of potential
trade-off and synergies
for CSA (2.89)
4. Analysis of risk
management options
(2.87)

10. Types of data are available in their country
Socio-economic data
1. Access to infrastructure (electricity, water, roads) (46.88%)
2. Agriculture related details at community level (43.75%)
3. Age, education, gender, occupation (41.67%)
Environmental data
1. Soil type (67.71%)
2. Hydrology and Land cover (58.33%)
3. Natural Hazards (severity & occurrence, damage & loss) (43.75%)
It is interesting that seasonal variability in access to resources received only 22.92%
Climate related data
1. Data on temperature (daily and dekadal) (82.29%)
2. Data on precipitation (daily and dekadal) 78.13%
Demonstrating that these data are available.

11. Types of data are available in their country (2)
Climate change mitigation data
I don’t know (38,54%), None (25,00%), Agriculture sector, specific GHG emission contribution (26,04%), models
used to determine country commitments, projections and potential (19,79%), mitigation coefficients (10,42%)
Institutions and access to services data
1. Access to/availability to of credit and micro-credit (66.67%)
2. Access to/availability to of banks (50%)
3. Access to/ availability of extension services (39.58%)
Prices, market and logistics data
1. National market data for agricultural outputs (51.04%)
2. Local market data for agricultural outputs (44.79%)
3. Local market data for agricultural inputs and national market data for agricultural inputs (35.42%)

12. Results for discussion
1. Major challenges posed by CC:
a) Increased impact of natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, storms;
b) Reduced water resources or increase of salinity;
c) Reduced growth and productivity;
d) Increased diseases and parasites for products and livestock.
2. Agricultural and rural development intervention needed:
a) Sustainable management of resources and production
3. The main constraints for transitioning to more sustainable, resilient and
efficient production systems:
a) Lack or limited, collaboration and communication among relevant
stakeholders;
b) Limited available mechanisms for knowledge sharing and capacity building;
c) Lack of access to extension and finance supports.

13. Results for discussion
4. Policy and institutional support mechanisms needed:
a) Support to scaling up CSA activities, policies and practices;
b) Support to farmers;
c) Capability to take decisions
5. Important improvements needed to ensure that the
knowledge/evidence base created is shared and used effectively:
a) Identification of economic supports;
b) Creation of information mechanisms to build synergies and identify
options
6. Data available:
a) Needs of information for data available and increase of sharing
data when they are available

14. Thank you for your
attention
Comments are welcome
federica.matteoli@fao.org