MAJOR FOCUS AREAS

USAID’s Agro Horizon Project is increasing productivity of agricultural producers and linking them to markets, improving access to capital, and generating employment. The project partners with agribusinesses to develop their supply base, upgrade their facilities and equipment, adopt quality and food safety standards, improve their management systems, and expand their markets.

EXPECTED RESULTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• USAID partnered with over 50 leading agriculture businesses who committed over $30 million to joint projects covering capital investments, raw materials, wages, and other operating costs.
• These partnerships generated about $6 million of new capital investments for milk production and processing, processing facilities for livestock feed, fruit and vegetable production and processing, as well as edible oil crop production and processing. Two of them include foreign direct investment that established two Tajik-Kyrgyz joint ventures exporting dried fruits from Kyrgyzstan. 
• Under the project, USAID partnered with a leading agricultural producer in Kyrgyzstan to launch the first ever commercial scale production of safflower oil that led to the cultivation of 2,680 hectares of mostly unused land in Jalal Abad and Osh oblasts.  The edible oil plant has the potential to supply up to 25% of the country’s entire demand for cooking oil. 
• Training opportunities, grants, technical assistance and other activities benefited over 100,000 households who received loans, training, jobs and new income opportunities. 
• By partnering with a leading sausage producer, the project helped establish the first modern slaughterhouse in Naryn Oblast that fully meets international standards.
• In Batken and Uzgen the project partnered with local companies to construct new modern cold storage facilities that are increasing the demand for farmer’s products.  
• The project helped to generate 1,200 full-time jobs for women, youth and men providing higher and more stable sources of household income.  
• The Youth Internship Program matched 43 students with 21 agribusinesses and resulted in 15 job offers.
• The project assisted in creating over 30,000 cubic meters of new storage capacity and more than 65,000 metric tons of additional annual processing capacity of fruits, vegetables, oil crops and meat products.
• More than 26,000 farmers and businesses accessed $33 million in financing with the project’s assistance through partnership with banks and non-bank financial institutions. 
• Project partners purchased over 22,000 additional metric tons of raw materials, to fully utilize new processing equipment and supply new markets.
• During the project, farmer and partner enterprises sold over $30 million of crops, livestock and products, of which over $11.3 million were exported.
• To improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables in the fall and spring the project partnered with local women-owned businesses to install fifteen greenhouses.  
• In 2018, the project helped farmers increase yields 16% for peaches, 66% for cherries, 141% for tomatoes, 25% for apricots, 24% for apples and 21% for winter milk. These gains are largely attributable to improvements in production management practices.  

USAID Agro Horizon Project Facebook page