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

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State co-financing enabled planting of perennial gardens on more than 500 ha in the Guria region.

The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Otar Shamugia together with the State Representative in the Guria region, Mr. Giorgi Urushadze visited the hazelnut orchard of a farmer Nikoloz Gobronidze in the village of Natanebi, Ozurgeti municipality, where high-rank officials attended the hazelnut harvesting process.

“Hazelnuts are one of the strategic crops for our country, which has a huge potential. As we are all aware, the hazelnut sector is facing a challenge of pests attack. Therefore, the government, farmers, and associations of farmers are jointly taking large-scale control measures to deal with the problem. For this purpose, we have mobilized a huge amount of finances, technical and human resources. International organizations and experts are also involved in this process and supporting us. Our main goal is to get a high-quality harvest. Only high-quality products are demanded and competitive in the local or foreign markets. I believe, that we will definitely achieve better results. Hazelnut farmers are much better organized, we have much better orchards than we had a few years ago. This progress must continue, and should result in a good quality crop, which will be reflected in the price and income of our farmers," Minister Shamugia said.

The farmer, Nikoloz Gobronidze has planted a hazelnut garden on 20 hectares within the project ‘’Plant the Future’’, where  GEL 50, 000 is a preferential agro-credit and GEL 10, 500 a co-financing by the Rural Development Agency. 

The Mayor of Ozurgeti Municipality, Mr. Avtandil Talakvadze and a Chairperson of a Municipal Council in Ozurgeti municipality Mr. Davit Darchia accompanied the Minister in the village of Natanebi.

The new perennial orchard was planted on more than 17.6 thousand hectares across the country under the program "Plant the Future", including, walnuts planted on 8,455 hectares, and state co-financing exceeding GEL 133 million.

New perennial orchards are planted on more than 500 hectares of agricultural land area, including hazelnuts planted on 68 hectares in the Guria region, where State co-financing exceeds GEL 7 million.