Food Security and Agro-Industrial Potential of the Eurasian Region.
Reports and Working Papers 23/1
Almaty: Eurasian Development Bank, 2023

some papers

Global food security is worsening. In 2022, 828 million people worldwide suffered from hunger or malnutrition. EDB analysts project that high food prices will persist due to population growth, climate change, and energy and labor shortages. The Eurasian region, including EAEU countries, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, has the potential to boost food production and exports extensively and intensively. The region already achieves 80-95% self-sufficiency in most food products, with grains and oilseeds being the highest and fruit the lowest. Mutual food trade among Eurasian countries has grown significantly. To ensure food security, an inclusive approach is needed, emphasizing effective export-import channels. Nurturing major producers and improving logistics through the Eurasian Commodity Distribution Network (ECDN) will help realize the region's potential. Access to promising markets requires improved infrastructure and a unified Eurasian Transport Framework. To enhance food security, the region should reduce dependence on imports, develop the agricultural technology base, strengthen financial infrastructure, create an enabling regulatory environment, and improve water and energy management.

Regulation of the Water and Energy Complex of Central Asia.
Reports and Working Papers 22/4
Almaty, Moscow: Eurasian Development Bank, 2022
[paper]

The report highlights the strategic importance of effective water and energy resources management in the Aral Sea basin for sustainable development in Central Asia, with 81% of the region's population living within the basin. The issue of water resources sufficiency and depletion has been on the agenda since the mid-1980s, and climate change, population growth, and development exacerbate the situation. However, the water-use efficiency indicator in the region's countries varies significantly, averaging $2.5 per cubic metre for the whole region, which is critically low. Underinvestment in the water and energy complex and insufficient regional cooperation among Central Asian countries are the key reasons for the region's low water and energy use efficiency and high economic costs. The report proposes five institutional solutions for effective regulation and development of Central Asia's water and energy complex, including open and constructive regional dialogue, improving existing institutions, establishing an International Water and Energy Consortium of Central Asia, involving financial operators, and channelling more resources into inter-country and intersectoral research.