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Friday,
August 24-September 7,
2007, #162 (1429)
By Rezo Getiashvili Georgian villages are being abandoned Georgian society has already been assured once that only wine and tea could keep the country's agricultural industry alive. But the crisis of the Georgian village is deepening with time, and the movement of citizens from villages to towns has tipped the balance of the country. However, Georgian
farmers are slowly adopting new agricultural concepts-organic farming
and agro-tourism-which speak to old farming traditions. Georgia kept up its image as an agrarian country during the Soviet period, with much of the population remaining in the villages. Even today, most working Georgians are involved in the agricultural industry. But as of 2002, 52.4 percent of people in Georgia lived in urban areas. The trend since then has been towards urbanization. Many abandon their villages in search of work, feeling there's no money to be made tilling the soil. The government has not devoted much time to tackling rural issues, largely neglecting infrastructure development and the introduction of modern technology, even for those farming sectors which grow for export. The processing industry is in crisis as well, and people working in it have little success in sales and employment. Salvaging, much less developing, the country's agricultural industry is going to take land reform and new approaches. 'We had to rediscover our traditions in Germany' Despite the problems,
it's possible to make an income farming and using Georgian traditions.
Nodar Sinjiashvili, a former miner, learned the ABCs of organic farming
in Germany. Now he's running an organic farm here in Georgia, where
he counts embassies and the Goethe Institute among his customers. Sinjiashvili started his farm last year, and he's already planning to export his food. It was foreigners who encouraged Georgians to grow organic produce. Most of the investment comes from Switzerland, Germany and France-and some farm Georgian land themselves. Jean Jacque Jacoba has lived and worked in the village of Magaro for more than a year, where villagers produce milk, meat and crops, and tend vineyards of rkhatsiteli and saperavi grapes. Jacoba, introducing himself as Vano Iakobashvili, shared some the village's goals. "We'll ship our products to the European market soon, with help from our Italian partner. It's our personal initiative and has no connection with the government. It's not so important for us to turn an immediate profit, but we do want to prove that we can make a profit on products grown without pesticides," he said. Jacoba's parents are farmers in the French province of Bretagne. 20 years ago, he explained, Bretagne's farmers used well water, but chemical pollution has since rendered the water useless. "Do you want the same thing to happen in Georgia? I don't want it to happen, and that's why I came here to explain to people what they must not do. The people should start working on it here. It's not a solution to go abroad," says Jacoba. Foreign tourists on briefer stays are also interested in the country's farms. "I came here at a friend's suggestion, and stayed more than a month in Sighnaghi," says South African musician Paula Spiegel. "Besides tourism, I'm concerned with environmental protection. The Caucasus are still considered one of the ecologically cleaner regions in Europe. But South Africans and Georgians are trying to be like Europe. There are better people here in Georgia, and I don't want them to look like gloomy Europeans." Profession: farmer In the past year or two, there have been serious pushes to develop tourism in Kakheti province. One of the villages there, Kachreti, wanted to get in on the anticipated boom. But it's not close to the province's national park, nor are there any cultural heritage sites nearby. So director of the Kachreti professional college Natela Mazanishvili turned to international donor organizations to kick-start a cottage industry for training and accrediting farmers, which she hopes will bring attention and visitors to the village. "An important part of the state's income is to produce fresh products and agro-tourism," says Mazanishvili. The UN is financing the new study programs. Reforms to professional
education began in November, 2006 and aim to establish clear standards
for various professions. The Kachreti study program will include five
independent elements, with tests required to move through the course. |
Georgian
agricultural: from collective farms to agro-tourism
