News
The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture opens the international competition ‘’Future Agro Challenge’’ at the Technopark
The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Levan Davitashvili opened the largest international competition ‘’Future Agro Challenge’’, which brings together ecosystem stakeholders from different countries of the world to encourage global collaboration.
The importance of using new technologies and innovations in the agricultural sector, as well as youth engagement and participation in the entire process was underlined by Mr. Davitashvili while delivering his opening remarks.
" The engagement of youth in the agricultural activities is one of the crucial issues. Innovation is a way to get young people interested in the agricultural sector. We have already embraced this practice, namely: there are many startups, some of them even very successful.
It’s worth mentioning, that we face a worst impact of climate change. Moreover, climate change related issues were actively discussed at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, which was held in Glasgow, U.K, where all participant states have made obvious statements, set ambitious goals and brought forward commitments to mitigate climate change. However, we can not reduce climate change, without introduction of modern technology and innovations, especially when we are focusing on increasing efficiency in the food sector. The agro-food sector has a crucial impact on nature and environment; All of the aforementioned can be solved through introduction of innovations, also by conducting researches, making discoveries or adopting the accurate and precise findings. I wish you all the best of luck; We are your supporters and we must continue to work together, meanwhile, we will confirm those important findings, which will be presented and will be put into effect as soon as is reasonably practicable, furthermore, we would like our entrepreneurs and farmers to adopt these innovations rapidly on the one hand, and on the other hand to present them on the international arena"- said Mr. Levan Davitashvili.
According to Nino Zambakhidze, President of the Georgian Farmers' Association, modern agriculture needs state-of-the-art technologies, as well as innovative vision. Similar events will increase motivation of young people and promote their participation, which will bring a great boon to the agricultural sector.
On December 5, the national winner of the competition - "Agripreneur of the Year" - will be announced and Georgian Farmers' Association will grant the winner a cash prize of GEL 2000. The international competition ‘’Future Agro Challenge’’ organized by Startup Bureau and Agro Solutions has been held for the third year in Georgia.
The general partners of the event are the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and Liberty Bank, supporters - Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA), Georgian Farmers Association, USAID Agriculture Program, DataFest Tbilisi, Israel International Development Cooperation Agency (MASHAV) and UNDP Accelerator Labs.