From 21 to 26 June 2026, the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (CSAM) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) conducted a mission to Central Asia, engaging with key stakeholders and partners in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The mission served as a follow-up to ongoing joint initiatives and programmes, while exploring new areas of cooperation to advance sustainable agricultural mechanization across the Central Asian subregion.

During the mission, the CSAM delegation, which included experts and professors from China Agricultural University, visited the Kazakh National Agrarian Research University (KazNARU), the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers-National Research University (TIIAME-NRU), the Scientific-Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization (SRIAM), and the Farmers’ Council of Uzbekistan. Discussions focused on reviewing the progress of ongoing collaborative initiatives and discussing follow-up actions to be taken forward in 2026.

CSAM expressed its sincere appreciation to all stakeholders and partners for their active participation and valuable contributions to its ongoing collaborative programmes and proposed initiatives. These include strengthening strategic partnerships, advancing joint research programmes, and undertaking technical consultations for a regional initiative for sustainable land management. Together, these efforts are expected to contribute to sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in Central Asia. 

Partners reaffirmed their strong commitment to deepening collaboration with CSAM by leveraging their technical expertise and institutional support to advance the collaboration on initiatives integrating digital solutions, AI-enabled technologies, and data driven applications into agricultural machinery, with the shared objective of promoting sustainable agricultural mechanization and fostering agricultural transformation throughout Central Asia.