On February 8, 2016, ISET hosted a workshop on Private Sector-led Agricultural Extension in Georgia. Organized by ISET in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, this workshop brought together chief executives of selected Georgian agribusinesses as well as representatives of the donor community, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Education and Science to discuss the possibilities for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for developing effective agricultural extension services in the country.

Currently, the Georgian agricultural sector is characterized by relatively low productivity (by international standards) and its contribution to the GDP of the country is much lower than what it could be, considering that 45%1 of the Georgian labor force is currently employed in agriculture.

When Saint Nino, one of Georgia’s most venerated saints, traveled to Mtskheta back in the fourth century, she stopped to erect a grapevine cross in Foka, a small settlement on the shores of Lake Paravani some 2000 meters above sea level. Saint Nino must have traveled during the summer since, even today, Foka is very difficult to reach for about 6 months of the year. Heaps of snow block all major access roads during the long and cold winter.

On Thursday and Friday, 28-29 of January, ISET Policy Institute hosted CARE consortium workshop under the ENPARD project (Cooperation for Rural Prosperity in Georgia). The workshop was attended by all four consortia members: CARE International in the Caucasus, ISET Policy Institute, Regional Development Association (RDA), and Georgian Farmers Association (GFA). During the meeting past achievements of the project were highlighted as well as the strategy for moving forward was agreed upon.

ISET is happy to announce that Giorgi Nozadze was promoted to a new position at the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia (MoA). Giorgi graduated from ISET with the class of 2011. He started his professional career working in the risk management department of a commercial bank. In the summer of 2012 he was employed by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (GeoStat) as a database analyst.