Mamuka Bakhtadze held a meeting with young farmers
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, May 24
The meeting was also attended by Levan Davitashvili, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and Mikheil Batiashvili, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia.
The involvement of young people in the field of agriculture, establishment of modern standards and enhancing the qualification of existing farmers is a major challenge to the agricultural sector. Strengthening the capacity of farmers with new knowledge and professional skills is one of the main preconditions for strengthening the region and economic development of our country in general.
The Farmers Association of Georgia, in response to the above-mentioned challenges, offers interested farmers, including people with disabilities and persons in conflict with the law, professional education and retraining opportunities, as well as agrarian education resources, which includes manuals, agro-library, mobile app "Agronavti" and remote programs of the University of Cambridge.
Bakhtadze emphasized at the meeting that Georgia is fully capable of claiming a place for itself on the world market in organic produce. He expressed his belief that agriculture will become one of the most successful fields in the country with the help of modern technologies and approaches. According to the PM’s assessment, Georgia has all the conditions to have a successful "green economy".
PM commented regarding subsidizing the field: “I have a very specific answer to those who have questions about the rightfulness of the state co-financing different agricultural projects. Last year, the export of Georgian agricultural products exceed $1 billion. Also last year, our farmers in Kakheti received the highest income ever. This was a historic maximum for Georgia,” said Bakhtadze.
The head of the Government noted that the development of small and medium-sized businesses and increasing production volume in agriculture are the ways to fight poverty in Georgia. He added that the government will increase the support of agriculture in the upcoming year: "I'm not a person who always supports the subsidizing policy. On the contrary, I think that it may be ineffective. But when we talk about the development of the sector that has the potential to grow, create more jobs, and have the decisive effect in combating poverty, in this case, my answer is very clear - we will continue supporting the agricultural sector,” said Bakhtadze.
The challenges of farmers that were discussed during the meeting involved education, professional learning and short-term trainings. Other issues that came up included availability of financial resources and infrastructure, bio-production and export support.
GFA Chairperson, Nino Zambakhidze made comments after the meeting regarding the export opportunities of the Georgian produce.
“With DCFTA, a market of 500 million people has been made accessible, a huge market of China has opened up as well, but challenge is for products to be of high quality and farmers to produce and export in high quantities. We were promised today that the problems that farmers are facing today will be solved using different instruments,” said Zambakhidze. According to her, in order to discuss all the issues, the Minister of Agriculture will hold another meeting with the farmers next week.
The book "Livestock-Poultry-Production Technology" that was elaborated by the Georgian Farmers Association was presented within the scope of the event.