MOLI stands for “Market Opportunities for Livelihood Improvement” in Kakheti. The project started in autumn 2012 and initially focused on milk and meat producers in the eastern part of the Kakheti region. It now operates in all eight municipalities of the region. In the second phase of the project, MOLI aims to reduce poverty in the Kakheti region while facilitating improved access to milk, beef and pork markets, and easing farmers’ access to inputs and services.

Despite being a predominantly rural country, Georgia suffers from extensive issues related to agricultural development. To this end, ENPARD, a European Union rural development program, has assisted with the establishment of a number of cooperatives throughout the country. The success stories of two of these prompted a recent visit by members of the Agricultural Policy Research Centre.

Georgian agricultural development has received significant attention lately, and it remains one of the most pressing issues facing the country. Yet proper development comes only as a result of comprehensive understanding, and so a study by UNDP Georgia, Swiss Cooperate South Caucasus, and the Ministry of Agriculture, in partnership with ISET and ACT, a research company, entitled 'What are the knowledge needs of Georgian farmers?' was initiated.

ISET’s Pati Mamardashvili and her co-authors Grigorios Emvalomatis (University of Dundee) and Pierrick Jan (Agroscope, Switzerland) have recently published their research in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (JARE). The JARE is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes creative and scholarly economic studies in the fields of agriculture, natural resources, and other related areas.

On June 2, 2016, the second EU-supported Farmers’ Congress of Georgia was held at the Tbilisi exposition center. Around 150 farmers from different parts of Georgia had an opportunity to meet with the government representatives and discuss the current challenges of Georgian agriculture.