Agricultural Research, Extension, Training (ARET) Project

The overall development objective of the Project is to increase agricultural production sustainably, while reducing pollution of natural resources. It represents the first phase of a ten-year Program, to be implemented in three phases, for the reform of on-farm agricultural and environmental practices. Under phase one, the Project, GEF would support the costs of implementing measures aimed at: (a) improving on-farm environmental practices, such as storage and management of manure water quality monitoring, which over the long term would reduce nutrients from entering the Black Sea; and (b) reducing greenhouse gases by promoting the use of biogas energy among rural household through technology demonstration and removal of institutional, capacity related, marketing and financial barriers to its more widespread use. GEF support for phases two and three of the Program is also envisaged, with the scope to be determined following the mid-term review of the Project.