World Bank Document

20. 
Sub-component 1.4 Farmer adoption support (US$75.0 million). The objective of this sub-component is to 
provide more effective knowledge and advisory support for adoption of productive and climate-smart technologies and 
practices to enable more reliable and higher quality outputs by farmers. Accordingly, modalities and arrangements will 
be developed that make the delivery of services effective, pluralistic, inclusive, and demand-driven. Advisory and 
extension services are a key element in developing human capital in rural areas. Agriculture is the main economic activity 
there, and advisory and extension services are probably the one channel for offering rural people on-farm trainings, 
including for women and youth, who otherwise do not have any access to vocational and higher education training. The 
sub-component aims to achieve this by supporting: (i) advisory and extension centers; (ii) service provision, including 
technology transfer through demonstrations, awareness creation, field and/or farmers’ days, exhibitions, and trainings, 
including for cooperatives and partnerships; and (iii) intensive orchards pilots.
21. 
Advisory/extension centers: The sub-component will pilot an establishment of resource centers in selected 
districts to organize advisory and extension activities. Initially, twenty-six (26) district level centers, in two districts per 
region, will be established to generate lessons for future scale up. Financing will include support for development of the 

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The World Bank 
Agriculture Modernization Project (P158372) 
Page 51 of 70 
institutional structure, and guidelines defining roles, responsibilities, accountability, financing, and functional processes. 
The establishment and/or strengthening of advisory and extension centers at central, regional, and local levels will 
involve: (i) development of training materials and training of trainers in the extension centers, especially on climate 
adaptation and mitigation approaches; (ii) construction of new, renovation/rehabilitation (of existing) and refurbishment 
(of both new and existing) infrastructure
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, including training halls, audiovisual units, libraries and class rooms; and (iii) 
procurement of equipment, digital tools, farm machinery, vehicles, and demonstration materials, including inputs, field 
equipment, and audio-visual materials. Some of the advisory and extension centers could be established in partnership 
with private sector as stated in the Agricultural Strategy. AMP will engage with GIZ, USAID, FAO, OBSE, UNESCO, and 
UNDP to develop final implementation arrangements and models of service delivery, which will be described in POM.
22. 
Service provision: Service provision will focus on transfer of tested, low-cost, and scalable CSA technologies 
generated by sub-components 1.1-1.3 and from other sources to farmers. In doing so, the sub-component will cover 
costs associated with demonstrations of technologies both at advisory and extension centers and on farmers’ plots, 
including the financing of operating costs and the procurement of seeds, fertilizer, farm machinery and other inputs, 
training, workshops, and experience sharing (exchange) visits. Training activities will focus on bridging knowledge and 
skill gaps for farmers and staff of the advisory and extension centers. The sub-component will also finance servers and 
computers to ensure internet connectivity to enable extension services to access knowledge database, agro-
meteorological information and data, and develop digital solutions for extension delivery and increasing farmer outreach. 
23. 
Another service of the advisory and extension centers will be to support establishment and/or strengthening of 
farm cooperatives that are being established in Uzbekistan. Agricultural cooperation is a new development, which has 
only started in early 2019 after the issuance of the Resolution of the President of Uzbekistan
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. More than 45 horticulture 
farm cooperatives, with membership of small dehkan and larger farmers, were already established at the time of project 
appraisal, but their management and business capacity remain low. Most partnerships/clusters between agribusinesses 
and farmers remain informal. AMP will invest in capacity building of farm cooperatives (e.g. business coaching, 
management, accounting, and CSA
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) and help productive partnerships sustain a long-term collaboration between 
agribusinesses and farmers.
24. 
Intensive Orchard Pilots: Uzbekistan has huge natural and competitive advantages in production of orchard fruits. 
These operations typically generate very high returns. Also, being highly labor intensive they create a significant number 
of durable and relatively well-paid jobs. However, this segment is severely under-developed due to a set of deep 
challenges. Orchard plantations are long-gestation investments, typically requiring long-term (5-10 years) finance/loans; 
however, the longest-term loans currently available to farmers are for 1-2 years, and that too backed by non-land 
collaterals. Orchard farming also require specialized agronomic inputs and crop husbandry. Unless it is organized 
collectively or at a sufficient scale, these skills are not easily available to small farmers working on their own. Also, since 
these target higher-value segments and dynamic export markets, they require significant commercial and management 
skills. The GoU has declared an ambitious plan to rapidly develop the orchard farm segment, targeting 37,000 ha by 2021.
25. 
This sub-component will assist in this vital transformation by piloting intensive orchard farms on about 3,000 ha, 
with tentative budget of US$65 million. The aim is to establish demonstration/extension pilots for intensive orchards in 
selected districts specialized in horticulture production, which will help, inter alia, with collective organization of an 
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Investments in climate proof and energy efficient infrastructure will be pursued.
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Resolution of President of Uzbekistan No. PP-4239 “About Measures to Develop Agricultural Cooperation in Horticulture Sector,” March 14, 2019.
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Specific topics can include improving farmers’ skills in countering the increased incidence of pests, improved training for the selection of pest-
resistant and/ or heat-stress-tolerant seed and crop varieties and providing information on improving on-farm water use efficiency. Topics come 
from stakeholder consultations undertaken in preparation of: Sutton, W. et al. 2013. Reducing the Vulnerability of Uzbekistan’s Agricultural Systems 
to Climate Change: Impact Assessment and Adaptation Options. Washington, DC: World Bank. 

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