Dr. Safaraliev Khursandi is the head of training department at Sarob, a non-profit cooperative supported by USAID, GIZ, European Union, and AKF to support farmers and producers in Tajikistan. He holds a PhD in Biological Sciences and a Master's degree in horticulture from Tajik Agrarian University. Since graduating, his research has focused on selecting rootstock and scion variety combinations for apples. He also manages a fruit nursery where he grows seedlings of various fruit crops, including apples, using different scion-rootstock combinations. He also worked on projects on different aspects of fruit tree nurseries funded by FAO and GIZ (Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit). He has published more than 40 articles in peer reviewed agricultural journals.