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

print

share

Otar Shamugia: " New hazelnut program aims to ensure, that we get a better hazelnut yield, obtain better quality products, and each household earns more income."

" We are gathered here today to inform you about the new state program. The new agricultural support program was created to promote the production of hazelnuts and support our hazelnut growers, who were affected by the invasive brown marmorated stink bug and bad weather conditions" stated the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Otar Shamugia during the meeting with the hazelnut growers in the village of Kakhati, Zugdidi municipality.



According to the Minister, promoting agricultural development in the country is a priority of the Government. Several state projects are being financed to achieve consistent and sustainable growth in the production of quality agri-food products. We are taking into account all challenges facing the agricultural sector, as well as the needs of our farmers during the development process of all projects.

" One of the top agricultural crops that Georgia has the potential for large-scale production and export is hazelnuts. In 2021, the earnings from the export of hazelnuts exceeded USD 115 million. 24,000 tonnes of hazelnuts were exported to 47 countries. The largest share of exports comes to EU countries," said Mr. Otar Shamugia.
The Minister also spoke about the challenges facing the hazelnut field and emphasized the measures implemented by the state against the invasive brown marmorated stink bugs.

 "As we are all aware, in 2017, the Asian stink bug caused a significant damage to the agricultural industry. The state had taken urgent measures- an appropriate program was created, Government allocated funds from the budget, donors also assisted us, and we started taking appropriate measures to fight against the invasive pest. Definitely, with your joint participation and involvement, we have been able to increase the production of hazelnuts since 2019," the Minister stated.

Mr. Shamugia spoke at length about the new state program and noted that under the decision of the Government of Georgia, the maintenance activities in hazelnut farming will be supported by the state.

New hazelnut program aims to ensure, that we will have a better harvest, better quality hazelnuts, and each household earns more income. Within the framework of the program, we finance farmers, who have hazelnut orchards from 0.2 to 3 hectares, in the amount of GEL 500 per hectare. We had consultations with the representatives of the hazelnut field. Consequently, it was determined that the aforementioned amount is totally acceptable to purchase necessary agricultural goods or equipment to deal with the invasive pests and various diseases.

I would like to mention that we did not have complete information on the hazelnut planted areas. Within the framework of the new project, we trained 150 local youth, who are with us and attending this meeting today. Our greetings to you , we are delighted, that you keep up the good work. It should be mentioned, that these young people are registering our farmers in the relevant cadastral system. We will have, in fact, a comprehensive statistical database on each farmer, the size  of the hazelnut orchard, the variety, and in case of need these data will allow us to take appropriate measures’’ stated Mr. Otar Shamugia.