Research Interests

• Agricultural transformations
• Community development
• Value chain analyses of aquaculture production
• Climate change impacts on aquaculture production
• Central Asia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic

Education & Training



2014-2017

Master of Science in Agricultural Economics, University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany

Thesis: Value chain analysis of rainbow trout and carp fish species in the Kyrgyz Republic

2011-2014

Bachelor of Science in Economics, Osh State University, Kyrgyzstan

2005-2001

Specialist in Linguistics, Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistics, University, Russia

Work Experience

2018-2019

Community Development Specialist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO UN)

Project: Towards Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in the Kyrgyz Republic

2018-2018

Consultant on Climate Change, FAO UN

Project: Towards Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in the Kyrgyz Republic

2017-2017

​​​Intern on Climate Change, FAO UN

2011-2014

Communication Facilitator/Project Management Assistant, FAO UN



Publications

Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk & Matthias Schmidt (2025): Unequal fields: Political ecology perspective on organic cotton production in Tajikistan. In: Organic Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-025-00491-y.

Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk & Matthias Schmidt (2023): Is the new path a modified old path? Smallholder farmers’ perspectives to cotton farming in Khatlon, Tajikistan. Central Asian Affairs. Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’

Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk and Matthias Schmidt (2023): Cash crop or food crop? Socioeconomic and geopolitical factors affecting smallholder farmer crop selection in times of crisis in southwestern Tajikistan", Frontiers in Agronomy. DOI: 10.3389/fagro.2023.1228165.

Spies, M.; Zuberi, M.; Mählis, M.; Zakirova, A.; Alff, H.; Raab, C. (2022) Towards a participatory systems approach to managing complex bioeconomy interventions in the agrarian sector. Sustainable Production and Consumption.

PDF  | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.03.020

Proceedings

Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Raab, Christoph; Zakirova, Aksana and Mehwish Zuberi (eds.)(2023): Sustainable Food and Biomass Futures? Localised Approaches to Agricultural Change and Bioeconomy. Eberswalde.https://doi.org/10.57741/opus4-837.