The project aims to increase the capacity of the fisheries sector to generate food, employment and income for the rural population in an environmentally sustainable manner. It will introduce management improvements to aquaculture and capture fisheries and support modern fish processing and marketing in Kyrgyzstan.
Project activities will include: increasing fisheries and aquaculture research, strengthening the management capacity of Kyrgyzstan's Department of Fisheries, establishing a national Capture Fisheries Management plan, constructing new fish processing facilities and improving the marketing of fish products.
Despite seeing a lot of pro-poor growth in the past few years, the Kyrgyz Republic is still considered a low-income country.
Aquaculture promotion and inland fisheries development offer an opportunity to reduce poverty, improve livelihoods and diversify rural employment for both men and women while at the same time will increase the availability of a highly healthy food product that can improve diets and nutrition.
Aquaculture-based fish marketing systems like those established in Finland in the past hold particular promise in Kyrgyzstan. Finnish fish processing plants are now able to process different types of fish and fishery products for sale in supermarkets, and trout meat is often the cheapest meal one can buy in Finland.
The new project will allow at least five candidates from Kyrgyzstan to acquire master's degree training in Finland, where they will learn how to run an efficient Fisheries Department and acquire expertise in the development of private fish processing and marketing enterprises based on cultured trout and natural lake catches.
FAO is the United Nation's lead agency for providing support to developing countries in sustainable fisheries and aquaculture management. It is the only international organization currently collaborating on fisheries development with all countries of the Central Asian region, making it relatively easy for the Organization to tap resources and expertise in neighbouring countries with FAO's recently-established Subregional Office for Central Asia in Ankara, Turkey, playing a coordinating role.
Finland Gives 1.76 million euro to Kyrgyzstan Fishery
FINLAND - Finland and FAO have signed a 1.76 million euro Trust Fund Project to improve fisheries and aquaculture management in the Kyrgyz Republic during the period 2009 - 2012.
