Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia

print

share

The officials of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, representatives of the international and donor organizations, NGOs and stakeholders gathered to discuss the draft of the National Strategy for Agricultural Extension in Georgia 2018-2019.

The First Deputy Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Giorgi Khanishvili opened the meeting.
Giorgi Khanishvili thanked the representatives of the EU and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for their active support in developing the draft strategy document and outlined the role of agricultural extension in the sustainable development of the sector.

" All stakeholders step in the process to review the draft version of the agricultural extension strategy, which ultimately will lead to the development of a comprehensive strategy document" Giorgi Khanishvili said. 

Mr. Georges Dehoux, newly appointed Programme Manager and Agricultural Attaché of the EU Delegation to Georgia and Program Assistant, Mr. Javier Sanz Alvarez, FAO Coordinator for ENPARD Projects in Georgia addressed the participants.

The goal of the strategy is to improve the competitiveness of the agriculture sector in Georgia by providing knowledge and information, support farmers in farming activities and help them to deliver the quality advisory services by transforming the current information and advisory system into a real needs-based extension service system.

At the meeting, the participants discussed changes initiated to make in the agricultural extension strategy, including an initiative to create a national network of agricultural demonstration plots.

It should be noted, that aforementioned network will unite 276 private and public agricultural demonstration land plots across Georgia.

The strategy document also envisages a creation of councils for farmer communities - farmers' field schools, as well as the involvement of the private sector in the extension process, which will be coordinated by the agricultural and Rural Development Agency.
Racha-Lechkhumi and Guria appeared to be pilot regions, where Agricultural Extension Strategy 2018-2020 will be implemented.