November 2019

Income volatility in agriculture is increasing worldwide due to climate change. Especially in Central Asia, drought is one of the biggest climate risks. Adaptation strategies of producers are limited due to underdeveloped financial markets and low capital reserves. Innovative index-based crop insurance can help better adapt agriculture to climate risks such as drought. In the KlimALEZ project, German, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Kazakh partners are therefore developing a satellite-based pilot product.

At former uranium mining sites in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, uncontrolled radioactive contamination threatens transboundary rivers in the region due to natural hazards such as flooding or landslides. In the DUB-GEM project, an association of German and Central Asian partners, an exploration technique installed on a drone is being developed which is used for rapid recording of the radioactive pollution situation in the vicinity of these locations. 

Exploration of uranium mining legacies

On October 25, a new pedologic laboratory at S. Seifullin Kazakh AgroTechnical University (KazATU) in Nur-Sultan was formally taken into operation in Nur-Sultan. The establishment of this laboratory, equipped to international standards, was initiated by the CLIENT II joint research project ReKKS with funding by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research.

On Oct. 23-24., the German-Kazakh Agro-Political Dialogue hosted a seminar on "Sustainable Development of Agriculture under the Conditions of Climate Change" in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana).

On Oct 24, CASIB was present at the large international agricultural exhibition Kaz-Agro in Nur-Sultan. Last year, approx. 300 enterprises from 27 countries exhibited there and almost 10000 visitors were registered.  

The III. Conference of the German Industry on significance, achievements, and chances for development of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) was held on Oct 22 in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), preceding the international agricultural exhibition "KazAgro". 

From Oct 7-14, 2019, CASIB's head of Bureau Peter Liebelt joined a delegation tour representing Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg that included visits to various universities such as the National University of Mongolia (a partner university of MLU) and the Mongolian University of Life Sciences. Both institutions are highly interested in cooperating with the EU and particularly Germany within the framework of international projects.

On Sept 28, Roland Keil, representative of DLR Project Management Agency, and CASIB's head of bureau Peter Liebelt jointly visited one of several sites of investigation within the CLIENT II project DUM-GEM in Kaji Say, a small community on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul (Kyrgyzstan).

On Sept 30th, 2019, almost 15 German and Kyrgyz stakeholders came together in the small town of Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, to mark the official start of the CLIENT II project "ÖkoFlussPlan". The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the three-year project with 860'000 €.