On November 20-22, 2013 an international exhibition-conference on Gardening, Olericulture, Beekeeping and Floriculture was held in Tashkent. The exhibition was organized by Expocontact LLC together with the Entrepreneurship and Farming Support Center of Uzbekistan, with the help of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Republic of Uzbekistan. At first it was hard to list all these branches of national economy, but by the end of the first day it became obvious that out of everything presented on the exhibition these days, Beekeeping was represented most numerously. Practically from every province of our country. We do have a number of Beekeepers associations and a representative of one of those, Fergana Regional Beekeepers' Association to be precise, - Souyarkoulov Sherali Roustambekovich, expressed willingness and interest in collaborating with our program and promoting together - the Role of honey bees in the environment of intensive agriculture. He told us that he had been a beekeeper since 1971, and has been promoting and advocating for the role of bees in nature and their great importance in national economy. He did then ask us for help: he said that in order to achieve a significant effect and a public resonance a support of an organization, such as ours, will be much needed. He stated that UN organization is highly authoritative in our country and has extensive experience, and only the input of such an organization would help to get the ball rolling and accomplish some results. And we think this is great! We will be considering this collaboration opportunity.

For the most visitors, this exhibition associated with the Honey Farm. In the pavilion of the exhibition hall " Kurgazmasavdomarkazy" where the exhibition took place, one could enjoy divine smells of various kinds of honey: from our fragrant alpine to snow-white and endlessly delicious prairie honey, despite everything else, interesting and yummy, that was presented there. It was a pleasant and joyful surprise for us to see a great number of beekeepers who brought an incredible amount of natural honey and other delightful products (and other, not too delightful: for instance, bee venom

There also were quite a few vegetable and fruit growers from many provinces of our country, decorative and tropical plant breeders, and also a lot of conservative farm products were presented. Various enterprises shared their latest developments. Some new technologies for processing and conserving fruit and vegetables were exhibited. For example, German specialists presented an interesting concept in fruit and vegetables processing - an energy efficient tunnel dryer equipped with a solar panel and a fan for the dryer's ventilation; the fan being powered by the solar energy.

The exhibition's organizers also invited GEF Small Grants Programme, as they were well aware of the Programme's extensive experience and the care its team treats the environment and people around with. SGP's team accepted the invitation and this time presented a few of their own technologies, among which were: an immediate hit of the exhibition - the Technology of creating a pistachio plantation - as the new solution in effective use of land in dry foothills of Uzbekistan,- that was presented by nearly all our forestry and pistachio growing specialists; Energy efficient solar greenhouses - headed by the leader of the Greenhouse branch Abdoumourad Ashourov from sunny Kitab; and a new concept by the Institute of Microbiology AS RUz, supported by SGP, - bio-compound Serhosil that increases soil fertility and improves the growth of crops, presented by the Institute of Microbiology AS RUz Research Associate Goulnara Joumaniyazova and her colleagues.

The guests of the exhibition showed a great interest in all our technologies. The proposal of our microbiologists alone was addressed to over 50 times, and more consulting on the bio-compound was provided. Our "greenhouse-smith" Abdoumourad Ashourov brought lemons grown in his own greenhouses - 3 and 4 year old lemon trees with ripe lemon fruit that every exhibition guest was eager to buy. Abdoumourad has also enthralled the guests with his talks about the greenhouses, for he was first to have built an energy efficient solar greenhouse. According to the common project of GEF SGP, Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and UNDP "Uzbekistan Business Forum. Phase 2", 9 such greenhouses are being constructed in 8 provinces of the country and Abdoumourad's colleagues are on their final stretch; and we hope that the coming winter will put this technology to a good test.
As for the pistachio, it attracted the guests greatly. Of course, a lot of guests wished to buy the pistachios of various types, nicely presented in jam bowls. On our stand pistachio received special attention. A few posters demonstrated technology's full cycle: from growing a seedling out of a seed to creating a whole pistachio plantation. Our specialists brought a few pistachio seedlings to exhibit. During all the time the exhibition was on, our specialists were addressed to at least a hundred times. The guests were asking them where pistachio can be planted to, where the seedlings can be bought, how to care for the seedlings after planting them etc.
During the first two days along with the exhibition a conference was taking place, where the participants could share their experience, learn a lot new about the development of different branches in the industry , get information on the new trends. The first and second days our Goulnara Joumaniyazova successfully presented her bio-fertilizer "Serhosil" the use of which results in growing eco vegetables and potatoes. G. Joumaniyazova's presentation drew a lot of interest from the representatives of Central Asian region at the conference. "We shared our experience in organic agriculture with the representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who practice organic agriculture and we are glad to see an increasing interest to our work and new fertilizers" - said G. Joumaniyazova. In today's era of growing demand for organic products, the presented development of our specialist looked extremely "natural" on the conference agenda.

Unfortunately, the guests of the exhibition could not buy anything but honey and other bee products as, according to the exhibition regulations, any product selling was forbidden for the first 2 days. All the products were simply exhibited there; and of course those participants who had some surplus would sell their products, but generally - it was all left for day three - the day of selling, or the Harvest Festival - selling of the processed products from the industries presented.

On day three, the guests were able to purchase a lot from the generous abundance offered by exhibit participants.

In our team's opinion, this exhibit was definitely fruitful and interesting. By the end of day three GEF SGP team was awarded with an honorable certificate for an active participation in the work of the exhibition. Another certificate will now take its spot on our "Wall of Success".
In addition we offer you to see the video about the exhibition shown in the Akhborot news, on this link: http://www.mtrk.uz/ru/#ru/scripts/uzbekistan/5251/ as well as with the photo-report by news agency Mezon.uz 's journalist: http://www.mezon.uz/news-in-uzbekistan/business/14925-vystavka-agro-food-2013-glazami-fotograf