Portal for Azerbaijani farmers has been created with EU support

Baku/07.12.22/Turan: The European Union, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan have completed two years of work over the creation of a multifunctional information and analytical portal for farmers.

Portal "Business Information System in Rural areas" ("Kənd Yerlərində Biznes Informasiya Sistemi") - RBIS.az is designed for an agricultural farmer who knows the basics of computer literacy.

The portal contains information about varieties of agricultural products, farm animals, yield, soil quality per each hectare in Azerbaijan, climatic conditions and yield forecasts for crops, meat and dairy products.

The portal also contains a library of scientific articles, publications about the experience in growing crops and animals; there is also an opportunity to get advice, as well as access to agricultural insurance, investments, the market and much more.

The new resource is based on data obtained from 4.000 farmers in Guba and Khachmaz. The creation of the portal was funded by the European Union, the work was carried out by Azerbaijani specialists under the leadership of the head of KYBIS Henry Yorgensen.

At the presentation of the portal, on December 6, Henry Jorgensen stated that currently the pilot, demo version of the portal is based on information from farms for growing apples in Guba and for growing tomatoes in Khachmaz.

In the future, the staff of the Agricultural Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture can expand the database using free information from EU satellites, reports of the Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, data from local farmers, open sources, etc.

To work on the portal, the staff of the Center for Agrarian Research underwent trainings and familiarized with similar EU resources in Europe, collected data from Azerbaijani farmers and used information from Azerbaijani satellites," Jorgensen said.

Director of the Center for Agricultural Research Firdousi Fikretzade noted that the new portal has replenished the information network of the Ministry of Agriculture, which has data on half a million farmers in several information portals (Agrodata, Agroinvest, etc.).

Farmers online will be able to receive consultations, information about markets, exhibit products at markets, audio and text information on business development.

The information base of the Ministry of Agriculture has been created and is currently expanded within the framework of the state program "Electronic Government".

According to Elchin Ibragimov, head of the department for development policy and economic assistance of the Ministry of Economy, electronic, online administration is successfully developing in the country. From 2015 to 2022, the number of licensed activities dropped from 56 to 36; 1,500 licenses were issued online. The purpose of the Ministry of Economy is to issue all licenses in an online format.

In the final part of the RBIS.az  portal presentation Jorgensen advised Azerbaijani agencies to integrate the portal with other data resources in the country, going beyond the sphere of agriculture, and expand the list of indices for analysis and forecasting, as well as make the portal constantly updated, accessible to researchers and students.

The question of financing the work of the portal in the future remains open. Jorgensen expressed hope for funding from the EU and the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. -0-