Continuing its support to the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s e-agriculture initiative, the Delegation of the European Union and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, launched in 2015 the above Technical Assistance project. The Consultant contracted for the project implementation was Vialto Consulting Ltd. from Hungary, in consortium with AGROTEC S.p.A., the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, the National Paying Agency of Lithuania and SEFT Consulting Ltd.

The aim of the project was to develop an advanced administration and control system that will improve effectiveness and transparency of management of agricultural subsidies. The system in conjunction with other agricultural databases was moreover to provide reliable data for use in agriculture policy making and the assessment of policy impacts – with the objective of improving competitiveness of agriculture and quality of life in Azerbaijan’s rural areas.  E–agriculture is a key component of the government’s agricultural strategy and its wider policy to further strengthen promising non – oil sectors of the economy.

The EU funding of this 24 months long project amounts to EURO 1.24 million. The project is a part of a range of activities developed under the current EU-Azerbaijan cooperation framework in the agriculture and rural development sector.

After two years of close cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and the experts from EU member states provided by Vialto Consulting and its consortium partners, the project was completed at the beginning of November, having the most important results, as follows:

• The new information ISSP System for the administration and control of subsidies based on best EU practices adopted to Azerbaijani situation;
• The manuals of procedures and e-agriculture related functions for the new MoA regional office network have been prepared and introduced in 5 pilot offices;
• The new procedures and techniques for subsidy applications spot-checks/controls using the satellite technology, have been developed and trained;
• Dedicated ICT strategy with adequate plans for further developments and e-agriculture implementation for the coming years including system roll-out in the regions, has been delivered;
• For the upcoming Rural Business Information System (RBIS) and for GIS Portal, the technical specifications have been developed. RBIS will enhance agriculture market information flows for the Farmers and Ministry, and GIS Portal will have share function of available digital spatial data with other governmental agencies, ministries and private sector.
• The new products covering the whole country, like high quality Orthophoto, new Aerial and Satellite images have been developed at MoA under the supervision of EU Technical Assistance experts. The experts have also transferred the knowledge regarding the development and maintaining procedures for these digital data like orthophotos, aerial/satellite imaginary especially regarding utilised agricultural land;
• In order to strengthen the capacities of the Beneficiary, the testing / verification and validation procedures for large national ICT systems have been prepared;
• As the new ICT systems need to be continuously maintained, the necessary standards for this kind of updates, based on international practices, have been transferred to the MoA;
• Because the modern EU governments operate on permanent on-line data sharing / exchange, within an E-Government solution, therefore the templates for institutional agreements for data sharing / exchange including technical protocols have been developed and specific Quality Controls methodologies of externally gathered data knowledge provided.

THE FINAL CONFERENCE

The final conference of the Project was held on 3rd November 2017, at HILTON Baku, in Azerbaijan. The event was opened by H.E. Minister of Agriculture, Heydar Asadov and Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas.

Noting in his speech that Azerbaijan’s agriculture is undergoing a period of serious transformation, Ambassador Jankauskas stressed that the European Union is ready to continue providing financial and consultative support to Azerbaijan in development of this direction.

Following the opening speeches, the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ilham Bayramov held his presentation on establishment of e-Agriculture information system. 

After the presentation of the Chief of Staff, the results of the Project were presented by the experts of Vialto Consulting, which was followed by a Technical Seminar, where the technical details of the Project were presented, with the assistance of the experts of Vialto Consulting and other stakeholders.

PHOTOS