About AIM

The Agro Information Centre of Azerbaijan (AIM) is a national, non-sectarian, non-political, not-for-profit Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). It was registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan on November 16, 1999.

AIM’s overall objective is to improve the productivity and self-reliance of newly established private farmers through agricultural extension, information dissemination, and the establishment of institutional infrastructure supporting the rural/agricultural sector.

AIM was founded by members of the national staff of Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA), a German Humanitarian Organisation, which has worked in Azerbaijan since 1992. The idea of establishing an NGO with a longer-term and sustainable development approach arose during the implementation of a Diakonie-funded agricultural relief and rehabilitation project, which started in 1996 and was completed at the end of 1999. At this time, all stakeholders agreed on the necessity of continuing demand-driven extension services for people engaged in crop growing farming activities as well as in animal husbandry. DEA’s representative in Azerbaijan and its senior management in Stuttgart, Germany supported the establishment of a national NGO. After its registration, the Agro Information Centre became the implementing partner organisation of Diakonie’s activities. As DEA changed the programme focus from relief to development activities, it approached a European consortium of donors to take over the financial support of AIM. Since 2001, AIM’s activities, as well as its staffing, have been supported financially, and through the assignment of a long-term Advisor by EED (Church Development Service) from Germany and ICCO (Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation) of the Netherlands, both development agencies rooted in the Protestant Church.

Since its establishment AIM is in the process of rendering demand-driven and quality advisory service and information provision to the farming population, both directly and by the training and coaching of village based Agricultural Advisors (AAs). Aside from the many internally displaced persons (IDPs), the target group included the sedentary farming population.

As well known, the function of the agricultural extension is improving farm income through the provision of information to farmers and help solving their problems. Extension programs are information services to enable and convince farmers to solve problems at their own level and from their own resources.

One avenue followed by AIM to reach this overall objective is the training of AAs which has increased the productivity via better farming practices and thereby raised living standards among rural population. AIM has made a strong effort to provide demand-driven advisory service and information to the target groups. Due to the findings of an intensive monitoring and evaluation by AIMs ME unit (Monitoring and Evaluation) the efforts put in place has yielded the increasing trust by the target group towards improved farming practices.

The major challenges in these activities have been to change the attitude towards the fee based services and reluctance to pay for the expert assistance provided by the AAs. However, by the latest stages of the project the appreciation by the farmers towards the great value added by the advisors has become obvious and it has served to the sustainability of the services provided. The experiences gained thus far have helped to expand the perspective of applied methodologies and search for advanced and more innovative approaches in extension and information dissemination.