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Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture Levan Davitashvili: " Active cooperation with the government, international partners and private sector enabled us to minimize the spread of Asian stink bug and save the hazelnut crop."
The Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze together with the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Levan Davitashvili paid a visit to Zugdidi to meet farmers and sum up the results achieved in the fight against the Asian stink bug. The sides evaluated outcomes of the Hazelnut Survival Program. Levan Davitashvili made a brief revision of the past few years, highlighted activities and implemented works in the fight against the invasive pest.
“Since 2016, the brown marmorated stink bug has become a real nuisance in Georgia. It was the year when scientists first identified the invasion of a dangerous pest in western Georgia. For the most part it was spread in Samegrelo region, today we sum up the results achieved in the fight against the Asian stink bunk in Zugdidi.
Since 2016, our partners from the United States have been continuously assisting the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture in performing the proper planning of pest control measures. We should mention, that, brown marmorated stink bug was a completely new pest in the country which had no natural enemy in the local environment, therefore, it was widely spread in the region.
Consequently, the first year was quite difficult. 2017 was a hard year as well, we planned and implemented large scale campaigns together with our American partners. At that time, we had insufficient resources, only 17 units of special equipment .
In 2017, we gained a great experience in implementing pest control measures. We constantly repeated , that if we had a consistent policy, we would have improved our fighting measures and achieve better results. However, we jumped to a conclusion, that we moved forward and nearly solved one of the major challenges of recent years, faced by not only agricultural sector but the whole country, we overcame existing challenge and will take total control over the pest in the coming years.
From the very first day, with the involvement of American scientists, we have been able to develop an action plan to combat the invasion of a pest, from our friends, from USAID, we have received not only technical, but a few million dollars aid for plant protection and pest control. As a result, our department for plant protection is equipped with more than 250 units of plant protection special equipment, furthermore, we established a headquarter to combat the invasion of the Asian stink bug in western Georgia.
We implement measures not only in Samegrelo region, but Guria, Imereti and Adjara regions as well. Today our capabilities are significantly increased in comparison with 2017. I would like to thank all donors, including the EU, which has supported us over the years and invested heavily in creating these opportunities.
At the same time, I think, that the governing team was unanimous in planning the fight. We considered this as a high-priority task, we had a great support from the Parliament, and I would like to express our gratitude to the committee. We have invested significant financial resources and made a breakthrough in the past three years.
I would like to point out, that according to the International Plant Protection Organization, this is the shortest period of time to make a progress in the fight against the invasive pests.
Many big countries with largest capabilities, despite acquiring both technical and important scientific resources had taken more than 10 years to combat the invasive pest.
However, damage caused by the pest in the agricultural field amounts to tens of billions of dollars worldwide. Asian stink bug is widespread both in the US and Central European countries.
Moreover, to regulate the population of the invasive pest and undertake the pest control in the long run, the invasive pest should have a natural enemy especially in the pest spread area. Therefore, scientific work and involvement is an important component to take pest control measures. Furthermore, biological –labs will be created in Georgia to produce a natural enemy of a pest. The Ministry has been implementing this project within the 2 years.
We will have to start from scratch to achieve desired result. The ultimate goal is to get a quality crop and subsequently to appreciate the hard work done throughout the year. In this regard, in 2017, we had a great breakthrough, so 2018 was planned differently and it was a turning point.
With the immediate support of the Prime Minister, we have ensured maximum engagement of local authorities. The locations were fully mobilized. That was the link, the necessary component that we lacked in previous years and without which we would not be able to reach the goal and achieve desired outcomes. Georgian government might develop plans, although without your involvement , we would not be able to achieve results. Our slogan was - only together we will defeat the Asian stink bug. Only with such an engagement, mobilizing each farmer, we achieved desired outcome.
This year, we will receive a quality hazelnut crop and are expecting to harvest more than 40,000 tonnes of hazelnut. We will definitely regain our position in the hazelnut export markets. We expect, that Georgia will receive $ 100-110 million through hazelnut export all year round, which will be a significant export revenue for the country's economy. However, it is also important to distribute the labour income per family, so that people living in rural areas might achieve an improvement in their economic conditions as far as, the main problem caused by Asian stink bug was the lose of income.
In recent years, we have faced severe problems in Samegrelo, Guria, other regions of western Georgia. With our maximum mobilization and active involvement, we will meet this challenge and consequently overcome it. We need to keep up the fight this year not to face the same problem in the next year, these activities will take several years to get the desired result.
We should mention, that we had a successful collaboration with the Hazelnut Producers Association. Through their experience and active work, we have been able to mobilize 15,000 farmers. Ultimately, we admit, that it was an unprecedented collaboration between the government and private sector.
Moreover, we have received a significant assistance from USAID international donor. Only through joint efforts it was possible to obtain a quality crop. For years, the hazelnut industry has had the challenge of providing raw quality products and export product was not competitive.
I believe, that the problem called Asian stink bug united us and finally we achieved the results we are addressing now. We have taken the first step in our journey to success, although we have a long way to go and by implementing a consistent state policy, which is related not only to the fight of pests, but also to the development and promotion of the agricultural field we will get the most out of it . ”- Levan Davitashvili.