On March 7-8, ISET’s ENPARD team with an M&E coordinator from CARE, took a field trip to Adjara, hosted by UNDP Adjara, which is one of the implementer of the ENPARD project (agricultural cooperative development across Georgia). UNDP Adjara recently became involved in the Annual Cooperative Survey, which has been carried out from the beginning of the implementation of the ENPARD project by other ENPARD implementer consortia (Care, Oxfam, Mercy Corps and PIN).

South Caucasus Trade Study to identify a number of areas focusing on three thematic components: (i) Trade, export, investment, and private sector development measures, (ii) Border management, (iii) New developments in regional integration.

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.

The UNDP Farmer Knowledge Project was carried out in two phases. Data on Georgian rural households1 was collected by the polling agency Analysis and Consulting Team (ACT) between February and July 2015. 2 This data was analyzed with the purpose of producing policy recommendations by the ISET Policy Institute between November 2015 and July 2016.

The UNDP conference on agricultural extension, which took place on December 7-9th, featured a 45-minutes presentation of the Social Policy Research Center (SPRC) of ISET-PI. Professor Florian Biermann, head of the center, discussed some preliminary findings of the project “Farmer Knowledge Needs in Georgia”.