World Bank Document

 

2. 

Agriculture constitutes and will remain the main source of employment for the rural 

population.  According to official data, the number of people employed in agriculture grew from 3 

million in 2003 to 3.4 million in 2013, or by 11percent. While this number is not expected to increase 

significantly, the agro-food system at large will become an important source of off-farm employment: 

upstream in support services and downstream in agribusiness for post-harvest operations, processing, 

storage, and exports. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan is already moving gradually away from producing 

agricultural products per se to value-addition through agro-processing, exemplified, for example, by 

steadily expanding cotton textile processing and an emerging garment sector. Value-addition in 

livestock has the potential to generate additional incomes for producers and create jobs in agro-food 

industries for local and regional dairy, meat, and poultry markets. Agro-foods are also an important 

source of employment for women and their inclusion in the economy. With a large share of the male 

labor force working abroad, many farms are now managed by women; and the recent growth of the 

agro-food industry is providing new job opportunities to women in rural areas. 

 

3. 

Improving the competitiveness of agricultural is key to generating good jobs in the agro-