ISET Economist Blog

30 April 2016

Salome Gelashvili, Yaroslava Babych

We May Not Be Hungry, but We Are Starving...

It is a well-known fact that nearly a half of the Georgian population is involved in agriculture, while Georgia imports around 60% of all the food it consumes. High food import share and food security are important issues for Georgia, widely discussed among the policymakers and in the media. One issue that remains largely in the shadows of public attention is Georgia’s struggle with nutritional deficiencies and unhealthy, undiversified diets.

30 November 2015

Salome Gelashvili, Phatima Mamardashvili

Innovation Starts Here and Now … In Lisi Lake Greenhouses

Innovation is not necessarily about Silicon Valley Hi-Tech startups. It can happen here and now. In particular, contrary to what we have been hearing from our liberal politicians, there is plenty of scope for innovation in Georgia’s agriculture!

26 September 2015

Salome Gelashvili, Phatima Mamardashvili, Lasha Lanchava

Georgian Farmers Playing Russian Roulette

On August 20, 2015, a strong hailstorm hit Georgia, devastating crops and infrastructure in eastern Kakheti. In Kvareli alone, the hailstorm destroyed about 1,300ha of Saperavi and 1,000ha of Rkatsiteli grapes, affecting more than 500 families. This was only one in a string of natural disasters striking Georgian farmers in recent years.

13 July 2015

Salome Gelashvili

Where Is the Free Lunch?

An average Georgian household spends more than 40% of its budget on food. It, therefore, stands to reason that Georgian consumers are quite sensitive to food prices, which may be very good news considering recent developments in global commodity markets. According to the latest World Bank’s Food Price Watch, “international food prices declined by 14% between August 2014 and May 2015, sliding into a five-year low.”

08 May 2015

Salome Gelashvili, Eric Livny

What Kind of "State" Does a Country Need?

Some twenty five year later, the world is once again rife with “contradictions” (the elimination of which is key to understanding Fukuyama’s end-of-history Hegelian thinking). These contradictions are most evident in the ever intensifying migration debates in Europe and the US, renewed trade wars, geopolitical rivalries and religious conflicts.

30 March 2015

Ia Katsia, Phatima Mamardashvili, Salome Gelashvili, Irakli Kochlamazashvili

Does it Make Sense to Subsidize Smallholder Georgian Agriculture, and if so How?

While Georgia never faced anything like a wartime food crisis, the agricultural policies implemented by the Georgian Dream coalition government in 2013-2015 did not lack in ambition, seeking to make up for more than a decade of “active neglect” of Georgia’s smallholder agriculture by the Saakashvili administration. In this piece, we take a critical look at one of the first government initiatives, the Agricultural Card Program, introduced in February 2013.

ISET Economist Blog

A blog about economics in the South Caucasus financed within the institutional grant by the Government of Sweden.