OSCE assists Uzbekistan in developing agricultural co-operatives

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan held a conference in Tashkent on 3 December 2012 where parliamentarians, representatives of ministries, scientists and farmers discussed a new law drafted by a group of specialists and Uzbek parliamentarians aimed at establishing agricultural co-operatives.

Addressing the conference participants, the Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, Ambassador György Szabó said: “It is essential that co-operatives be formed, managed and controlled by a group of individual farmers.”

Szabó also shared the experiences of a number of OSCE participating States where co-operatives have proved successful in terms of increasing the country’s agricultural production, creating new business opportunities and improving the general economic situation.

According to the draft law, the new type of co-operatives will be based on the principle of farmers pooling their resources in certain areas, and will thus function as agricultural service co-operatives, providing various services to their individual members. The idea is to have legislation in place to provide for the existence of co-operatives dealing with supply and marketing issues. Supply co-operatives would provide input for agricultural production, including seeds, fertilizers, fuel, and machinery services to the members, while marketing co-operatives would be established by farmers to for the transportation, packaging, distribution, and marketing of farm products.

Later in December, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator will publish and distribute a book presenting all agriculture-related legislation in Uzbekistan in Uzbek, including the new law on co-operatives.