The Asian region, which covers some 46 countries, has been organized for the purpose of this WWES study of sub-regions into five sub-regions, namely: Central, East, South East, South, and West Asia.  The following summary covers West Asia.

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{tab title=Introduction}

Introduction to the West Asia Sub-region

West Asia comprises 18 countries, namely, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Due to conflicts in the West Asia sub-region, for a number of country cases there is little or no information on their extension and advisory services. The public section is the dominant provider of agricultural extension and rural advisory services in nearly half of the countries in the sub-region; otherwise there exists a mix of trends in providing agricultural and rural advisory services. Azerbaijan’s arrangement appears to depend primarily on two major non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Georgia and Jordan have both adopted pluralistic extension arrangements.  Georgia’s public sector provides extension through various ministries and several semi-governmental organizations, along with support from international donors, and numerous NGOs.  Israel’s agricultural sector is based almost entirely on R&D, implemented by cooperation between farmers and researchers. Jordan’s agricultural extension activity is being carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture through a public institution, NCARE, as well as by private sectors, input supply dealers, NGOs and farmer organizations.  Turkey has a wide network of public extension services.  At present, due of civil strife, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria lack detailed information on agricultural extension activities. More communication and research are needed to fill in these gaps regarding agricultural extension and advisory systems in the West Asia sub-region. 

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{tab title=Specific countries}