Dushanbe, 05 June 2018 – Employees of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Tajikistan’s central office gained useful computer software skills during a 7-week FAO Microsoft Excel course. The ten participants coming from various departments and divisions, such as livestock breeding, poultry, seeds and international affairs, received their certificate on the successful completion here in Dushanbe today.

They can make a good use of the knowledge gained when using the computers (laptops and personal computers) that were distributed by FAO in February this year. Both activities are part of a four-year project funded by the European Union’s Rural Development Programme 1 with the budget of EUR 5 million.

During the training participants familiarized themselves with main functions of the software such as setting up tables, budgeting, using mathematical and statistical formulas, sorting and filtering data for further analysis, developing charts, and other useful features.

“The FAO training was necessary to the Ministry of Agriculture, but especially to our department that is dealing with calculations and the analysis of a large amount of data everyday” said Shomamadov Abdumamad, head of the technical policy and development of agriculture infrastructure department.

“The need for this Excel course was identified during a training needs assessment, along with a range of others, and is included in the ministry’s training plan developed jointly with FAO,” explained Oleg Guchgeldiyev, FAO Representative in Tajikistan, present at the ceremony. Guchgeldiyev added that “soon FAO will conduct further thematic trainings, as well as English language courses to ministry employees”.

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