The five Central Asian countries are highly agrarian, with 60% of the population living in rural areas and agriculture accounting for over 45% of total number of employed and nearly 25% of GDP on average.
[1] Kazakhstan, with its strong energy sector, is less agrarian than the average Central Asian country, with agriculture accounting for only 8% of GDP (but still 33% of total employment).
Aside from these two primary crops, the region produces a wide variety of products which include barley, corn, flax, grapes, potatoes, rice, sugar beets, sunflowers, tobacco, apricots, pears, plums, apples, cherries, pomegranates, melons, dates, figs, sesame, pistachios, and nuts.
Cattle, sheep, and poultry are the main animal species in agriculture, and breeding racehorses is the pride of Turkmenistan.
Kazakhstan, jointly with USAID and UNDP, launched a program aimed at introducing digital technologies in weather forecasting.