On May 31, ISET organized an excursion to an agricultural cooperative called “Gift of Forest” in Tsinamdzgvriantkari, in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region of Georgia. The purpose of the excursion was to learn more about a successful cooperative and understand how this success could be replicated in other contexts and value chains in Georgia. Students from ISET, representatives of non-government, international, and other local organizations joined the excursion.

The cooperative was established by eleven women living in the Saguramo IDP settlement. These women, who were experienced in gathering non-timber forest products but had no income, managed to create a working cooperative with the financial support of OXFAM GB Georgia and implementation from the Rural Communities Development Agency. However, the main incentive for creating the cooperative was demand from the private sector. After getting adequate training and following sustainable collection guidelines, the cooperative managed to get an organic certificate.

A lot of challenges remain that need to be addressed by cooperatives and rural communities in general. One of the main issues is the sustainable, efficient use of renewable sources of energy and natural resources. During the excursion, a visit to the Information, Consultations and Innovation office of the Rural Communities Development Agency gave participants the chance to see a number of demonstration projects, including a solar heater for cooking, drying fruit, and heating water, which can allow rural communities to achieve sustainable living by reducing expenditure on energy, reducing deforestation and using renewable sources of energy.

This excursion was a follow-up activity to the dialogue on The Contribution of Agricultural Cooperatives to Rural Development in Georgia that took place in the framework of a dialogue series on inclusive growth organized by the ISET Policy Institute (ISET-PI) in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).