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Agriculture problems

By Messenger Staff
Tuesday, May 11
More than a million of Georgia's work capable people are self employed, mainly in the agricultural sector, official statistics state. Therefore it is understandable that the Georgian Government declares the development of the agricultural sector to be a priority, however the amount of money being allotted for this development is insignificant. Indeed, it has been more than halved in the 2010 budget, to GEL 55.348 million, and many of the agricultural programmes which had been running have now been suspended.

The deterioration of the agricultural sector has become very visible since 2005. In the nineties of the last century 800,000 hectares of land were being cultivated but today this figure has halved or more than halved. The area of wheat-growing land has decreased almost three times and local wheat satisfies only up to 8% of the consumed amount. Some time ago Georgia met 100% of domestic demand for vegetables but today only 80%. The production of tea, tobacco and other agricultural products has also dramatically declined.

We could add many more problems to this list. It is clear that the agriculture sector needs thoughtful, consistent, continual and systematic support.