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Georgia to host the first-ever National Agrarian Olympic Tournament
Georgia will host the first-ever National Agrarian Olympic Tournament, which aspires to foster agrarian education and professions, raise awareness among young people on agrarian-agricultural fields, as well as boost non-formal education efforts to the respective sector.“Apart from promoting agrarian affairs, the agrarian education becomes highly crucial. We aspire to inspire those, who have motivation in these fields, thus, we have initiated the first-ever agrarian Olympic tournament under aegis of the Ministry. The idea has a capacity to turn into a popular and annual event in the future. Frankly speaking, the Agro-Olympic tournament will be a highly effective platform for people in agricultural sector or interested in the latter to demonstrate their knowledge. The tests have been designed by professional experts and specialists. The respective tournament will play a crucial role in promoting agrarian education and the field in general” – Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Mr Levan Davitashvili stated.
The tournament consists of the following target groups:
· Specialists with higher or vocational education in agrarian field;
· Students enrolled to agrarian-focused universities or vocational education institutions;
· Farmers, who are involved into agrarian-agricultural activities and have accrued sufficient knowledge and experience;
· Pupils aged 14 – 18, both, enrolled at public/private schools, as well as specialized colleges.
“We would like to provide any person interested into agrarian spheres to demonstrate their knowledge, increase visibility toward employers and discover even more opportunities” - Mamuka Meskhi, Assistant Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Georgia stated.
An Olympic tournament will be held in three stages. The first stage will open up registration process; the second phase will invite registered participants to testing (via online platform, distant) on matters that they had indicated from agricultural-agrarian fields; the third stage will nominate winners after the testing results.
The respective fields will be utilized for nominating a winner (1st, 2nd and 3rd places) per each category – farmer, student and a specialist, pupil. Winners within the Olympic tournament will be awarded with prizes and certificates.
“National Agrarian Olympic Tournament will be a novelty in Georgia; it also happens to be a novelty for the European Union. We are expecting that the tournament will cultivate interest among more people to get involved into agriculture and agrarian sphere” - Mr Alexander Karner, Head of the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC)'s South Caucasus Office.
The National Agrarian Olympic tournament will be organized in Georgia for the first time. Long-term strategic objectives of the latter tournament are to establish the Tournament in an agrarian sphere, as well as on a national spectrum respectively.
The tournament will be organized under aegis of the MEPA. The respective concept has been developed by the “Association for the Agriculture Development”. Organizers of the tournament are the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC)'s South Caucasus Office and the Association for the Agriculture Development. The partners of the Tournament are the USAID Agriculture Program, GRETA / Green Economy project: sustainable mountain tourism and organic agriculture, the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), Environmental Information and Education Centre (EIEC).