Today the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Tashkent State Agrarian University (TSAU) hosted an event to commemorate Earth Day. U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniel Rosenblum and USAID Mission Director Mikaela Meredith joined TSAU Deputy Rector Alisher Khasanov and Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan Alisher Shukurov, students and faculty of TSAU to award the winners of the Students’ Environmental Challenge Contest and participate in a tree planting ceremony.

“We are here today to emphasize the urgency of environmental challenges faced by the world’s population. I want to highlight that we need to act now on climate change and engaging youth in this process is critical. TSAU is preparing future leaders for Uzbekistan’s agricultural sector and these bright young people will be the ones piloting new innovative approaches and sustainable agricultural practices,” said U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniel Rosenblum.

The Students’ Environmental Challenge contest was announced in March 2022 by the USAID Agribusiness Development activity in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and TSAU. Winners – a group of three TSAU students – Gulhayo Yahshibekova, Nozima Abdusalomova, and Shokhrukh Tokhtasinov, who are currently studying landscape design and processing of agricultural products, proposed a project to set up a QR code system to register trees around the TSAU campus. The QR code tags on the campus trees will contain information about the specific tree varieties and ensure their protection by creating an online registry.

“Enabling and empowering women, youth, and other groups to lead climate action is vital to successfully addressing the climate crisis,” said USAID Mission Director in Uzbekistan Mikaela Meredith. “We are excited that the contest triggered students’ critical thinking and motivated them to think about environmentally sustainable solutions. Following the “think globally, act locally” philosophy, these practical solutions can be applied on campus and can also be scaled-up nationwide to support Uzbekistan in its effort to address environmental challenges,” she added.