Kazakhstan's Minister of Agriculture, Aibarbek Saparov, met with FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu on the sidelines of the 35th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Europe and Central Asia held in Tajikistan. The parties discussed the current state and future prospects of their cooperation. According to the Ministry, ten key projects with a combined value of USD 9.5 million are being implemented in partnership with the FAO. These initiatives include the development of a long-term dairy farming development program, strengthening capacity for the prevention and detection of small ruminant plague, joint efforts with Armenia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan to combat brucellosis, the advancement of breeding and seed production, enhanced grasshopper monitoring and control, and a regional project to combat pests in Central Asian countries and Afghanistan.
Under the FAO-Kazakhstan Partnership Program, data collection has been completed in the Akmola, Almaty, Kostanay, and North Kazakhstan regions, and meetings were held regarding indicators for the "Kazakhstani Varieties and Seeds" initiative. A project to establish a national system for monitoring, assessing, and verifying soil organic carbon, scheduled for 2026-2029, is currently in its launch phase. The FAO Director-General highlighted the opening of the Kazakhstan Room at the organization's headquarters as a symbol of strengthened partnership.