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

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Otar Shamugia: "At the initiative of the Prime Minister of Georgia, the large-scale project will be soon launched in Georgia, entailing the development of infrastructure in various areas."

The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Otar Shamugia spoke on the TV channel Maestro, ‘’Maestro Regions’’ about the importance of launching a new large-scale project, upon the initiative of the Prime Minister of Georgia.

"At the initiative of the Prime Minister, a large-scale project will be soon launched, which involves the infrastructure development in various areas , primarily, schools, kindergartens, roads, while agricultural development projects entail the development of irrigation and drainage infrastructure, for which we will allocate GEL 200 million.
We take measures in the respective area every year; In recent years, we have spent about GEL 500 million on the restoration of irrigation infrastructure, namely, the main canals, the headwaters.

"Today, in the face of climate change, it is crucial , that our farmers have water supplies in their agricultural land areas, as well as to enable them grow high quality products ‘’ Mr. Shamugia said. 
According to the Minister, there are great resources, thousands of hectares of arable land left unused today, therefore, rehabilitation of drainage systems in western Georgia is crucial to engage more unused land in farming activities.
"I will also outline, that in the face of climate change, when runoff is reduced on rivers, through the support of the World Bank, we are conducting a research on the construction of new reservoirs and making survey of existing ones at 25 locations. This process will be completed very soon and it will shed light on the situation. As a result, we will have information where  to build new reservoirs, rehabilitate existing reservoirs and use them to provide a stable water supply to farmers ‘’ Mr. Otar Shamugia said.
The Minister set focus on several infrastructure projects. These projects have been implemented in recent years; Pirosmani pumping station was restored in Dedoplistskaro, Samtatskaro pumping station in Khurvaleti.

For the last 30 years, if farmers hadn’t had supply of water, they couldn’t use their land plots for agricultural purposes, accordingly, they were not able to grow high value crops, although, organizing of the irrigation infrastructure has enabled to irrigate approximately 150,000 hectares of land today. 
"We believe, that we will irrigate 200 thousand hectares of agricultural land area in the next few years. We have already rehabilitated the main canals, headwaters and infrastructure.
We are now moving into the next stage to organize and arrange the internal infrastructure, furthermore, internal networks guarantee, that farmers will have water supply on their plots. "This is the next stage, which requires a large investment, however, it is necessary that farmers have stable water supply," - said Mr. Otar Shamugia.