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Friday,
August 17,
2007, #157 (1424)
More than half of Georgians are employed in the farming industry, but most are self-employed. They till small plots of land for largely subsistence-level harvests; the total economic value of domestic agricultural is disproportionately small, and on the decrease. Economist Soso Archuadze, writing for the newspaper 24 Saati, calculates today's farming production is three and a half times less than in the late 80s, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Investments in the agricultural industry, he adds, amount to just two percent of total investments in Georgia. Minister of Agriculture
Petre Tsiskarishvili has promised that things will improve this year.
This summer the government announced a handful of initiatives to push
for new, export-oriented farms. If they're successful, the numerous
rural poor could hope for new jobs in impoverished areas. |
Government moving
to revitalize farming industry
