Global food security faces a number of pressures, including conflict, climate change, pollution and overexploitation. North and Central Asia is a region at risk, with human activity contributing to significant levels of desertification in drylands and other fragile biomes.
Agriculture is a major source of employment in the region, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the working population in Tajikistan, more than 30 per cent in Azerbaijan and Georgia and more than 20 per cent in Armenia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of rural populations, which are often among the poorest sectors of society.
Kareff Rafisura. Photo credit: Kareff Rafisura’s personal archive. With greater efficiency and optimization, the agricultural sector can save water and resources, increase yields and adapt to new climatic realities. That kind of innovation is the theme of this year’s World Food Day (16 October) “Innovate today.
Nourish tomorrow.” Across North and Central Asia, geospatial technology is already helping both farmers and policymakers. Making the most of it, however, depends as much on skills and on institutions working together as on the technology itself. Geospatial technology can support farmers in decision-making processes through online platforms and applications.
In Kazakhstan, the application AgroData integrates data from 226 agrometeorological stations, giving farmers real-time information on weather, soil moisture and crop health. Farmer App in Azerbaijan and KosmosAgro in the Russian Federation offer similar tools, from monitoring vegetation growth to estimating yields and spotting pests.
Kyrgyzstan has partnered with the World Food Programme in a project that equipped around 5,000 rural community members and farmers to interpret and apply climate information from new portable equipment deployed across 13 sites. Kyrgyzstan is also building AgroMap, a free application for farmers which will provide real-time information on environmental and agronomic conditions Satellite technology can also help guide policy at the local and national levels.
In Turkmenistan, geographic information system technology has been employed around Lake Altyn Asyr to identify suitable areas for agriculture. In Kazakhstan, the AgroSpace platform provides geospatial data on agricultural land to justify subsidy applications by the mapping and verification of field borders, crop history and current crop conditions.
Richard Tonkin. Photo credit: Richard Tonkin’s personal archive. Putting these tools to work also depends on skills. In 2024, ESCAP – with funding from the Russian Federation – launched a project to strengthen the capacity of Central Asian countries to use Earth observation (EO) and geospatial technologies for monitoring agricultural conditions and the impacts of drought.
By July 2026, its training activities had engaged over 140 technical staff and experts from space agencies, hydrometeorological services, research institutions and universities. The project, which spans Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, draws on technical support from Regional Drought Mechanism service nodes in China, India and the Russian Federation.
It has also supported countries in operationalizing national drought monitoring systems, including the demonstration of a prototype national portal, led by Uzbekspace, for accessing, visualizing and analysing EO-derived drought and crop information. Cloud-based EO platforms have also helped address digital infrastructure and connectivity constraints in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.