Family Farming is the predominant form of agriculture. It represents the main source of income in rural areas and produces majority of agricultural products in Georgia.

During the last three months, the Agricultural Policy Research Center (APRC) of ISET-PI was working on a study about family farming in Georgia. Within this project, we conducted interviews with farmers and owners of agribusinesses. These interviews elicited many intriguing facets of Georgian agriculture, but one aspect I found particularly interesting was that Georgian farmers apparently have a rather negative view on agricultural jobs.

In this study, the role of Family Farming was assessed with regard to three dimensions (economic, environmental and social) of sustainable development. Literature review, SWOT analysis, individual interviews with stakeholders and case studies were conducted in order to define the role of Family Farming in the sustainable development of Georgian agriculture.

The main goal of this project was to develop a neutral platform for regular discussion of Georgian government policies, donor-financed programs to promote inclusive growth A total of seven debates and thee project presentations were hosted at ISET as part of this project on topics ranging from farmer cooperation to family farming, to tourism, to vocational training systems, to SME development, to access to energy.