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The "UZBEKISTAN: A report on livestock and the provision of Veterinary services" provides a deep overview of Uzbekistan in terms of its agriculture, land use, livestock provision and the teaching of veterinary sciences. Resulting from an intensive trip to the country, contact with local colleagues and various stakeholders in the field, and also from a broad bibliographical analysis, it gives a recent historical perspective and an actual global vision of the livestock and veterinary sectors in Uzbekistan. This report will be useful and of interest to all working in and stakeholders in agriculture and animal production in Uzbekistan, and elsewhere in the Central Asian region.
This report describes the main information/data collected during the BUzNet project field visit to Uzbekistan that took place from the 13th to the 22nd of March 2018. The field visit was conducted by a team of Uzbek and European experts with the aim of collecting direct data from Higher Education Institutions where Veterinary Medicine, Zootechnical or related degrees are taught, from animal farms and milk processing plants, as well as from veterinary laboratories located in Uzbekistan, throughout the country, mainly around Andijan, Tashkent, Nukus and Samarkand. All universities providing veterinary education in Uzbekistan were visited. The information obtained during this field visit, and presented in this report, provides a clear idea of the current situation of the Uzbek livestock sector, the organization of veterinary services, the dairy industry and veterinary and zootechnical education. During the project’s development, this report allowed the consortium to identify the most relevant areas of potential intervention of the BUzNet project. This report will now be of use to all interested, and making decisions regarding, agriculture and animal production in Uzbekistan. It may also be of interest to these sectors on other Central Asian countries.
In the framework of the BUzNet project, one of the initial objectives was to have a clear view of the current situation of all the stakeholders in the veterinary and zootechnical fields in Uzbekistan. For this purpose, a series of different enquiries were produced by the project team and then distributed among the target populations in the different areas of Uzbekistan where the project was implemented. The results were processed and analyzed and the final results are presented in this report. The description of the results follows the strategy adopted in the enquiries, analysing each one of the interest groups separately. A total of 389 responses were obtained, of which 45 were from veterinarians, 84 from teachers, 94 from students, 82 from milk sector personnel and 84 from farmers, thus ensuring a very broad and balanced analysis of all the main stakeholders in the area of interest.
The BUzNet App is one of the most innovative and important outputs of this project. In this document, the theory and practical application behind the BUzNet app use is described. Teaching/learning practical subjects presents one of the biggest challenges higher education institutions currently face. The use of a hands-on contextualized strategy, putting students in real-life situations and allowing them to solve them under teacher supervision, is the best strategy to achieve comprehensive learning and understanding. However, this approach presents several difficulties. The logistics, equipment and teaching personnel needed to present each student with enough cases/situations to cover even the most simple and basic learning outcomes are so huge that makes it very difficult, as well as expensive and laborious. Although the internet is now ubiquitous, there aew problems and shortfalls present in using it effectively in teaching/learning. The BuzNet app is an application based in the internet and using cellphones in order to create a digital system to be used to increase the efficiency of teaching/learning practical subjects in veterinary medicine. It will be made available freely, potentially to all students of veterinary and zootechnical fields in the world.
The aim of this field trip report is to describe the local situation at Uzbek Higher Education Institutions after the implementation of the BUzNet project activities, particularly, but not exclusively, the following:
- Set-up of a computer room, register of equipment purchased and up-grade to library: evaluation of the setting up and running of the new laboratories, the availability of the newly provided facilities, improvements that have been made in the learning process, and management of potential specific needs related to the goods’ use.
- Design and implementation of up-dated curricula: discussion and evaluation with the consortium about the work that has been done on bringing the Uzbek curricula more in line with European Higher Education Area standards.
These Memoranda of Understanding are formal agreements for scientific and didactic collaboration between the University of Porto and the Central Asian partners. Such collaboration will be a means to foster the development of scientific and teaching skills at the Uzbek universities, through subsequent years, as a consequence of the contacts and friendships established during the BuzNet project.
