Back in 2013, the Government of Georgia (GoG) approved a new law entitled “On Agricultural Cooperatives.” The primary goal of this legislation was to support agriculture and rural development in the country by strengthening agricultural cooperatives. Since then, agricultural cooperatives have been springing up like mushrooms; 13,000 farmers have already been registered in 1,500 cooperatives. In order to strengthen their capacity, donors led by the European Union have been providing financial assistance as well as trainings and advisory services to cooperatives and their members.

Farmers can be much more effective if they have up-to-date information, on prices, practices, and weather. With mobile phones and mobile Internet, they can get this information when, where, and how they need it. The promise of the Internet for agriculture has been a popular idea, and in Georgia, too, policymakers and donors have begun to explore the options. Some pilot projects seek to program specific platforms for farmers, in order to inform and engage them.

The Forum took place on 29 November 2016 in the framework of the EU-funded European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD) in order to discuss some the key challenges Georgia’s agricultural cooperatives face with regard to access to finance. Please see the conference programme and presentations (listed below).

On 29 November 2016, in the framework of the EU-funded European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD), an Interagency Forum on “Access to Finance for Cooperatives” took place at the Hotels & Preference Hualing Tbilisi. The purpose of the forum was to discuss challenges and opportunities that cooperatives face with regard to access to finance.

Under the Soviet system, farmers worked under strong central control; everyone knew what to do. Important economic decisions were not left to the market or decided by self-interested individuals. Instead, the government, which owned or controlled much of the economy’s resources, decided what, when, and how to produce. Along with providing necessary inputs, the state ensured that farmers had access to markets for their goods.