Overview

Georgia lies on the southeastern boundary of Europe, between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus and the Black Sea, an area defined by Conservation International as one of the world’s biological hotspots. Georgia, with 23 soil-climatic zones in only 69,700 km2, possesses unique plant diversity and a long history. Its agriculture can be traced back seven or eight thousand years, when Kartvelian (Georgian) tribes began to domesticate basic crops such as wheat, barley, oat, rye, grain, legumes and fruit species. Georgia has a rich flora, both in terms of wild species (more than 4,200) and crop species (about 100 families and 350 local species of grain crops). Georgia also has more than 100 species of seed and stone fruit-trees, nuts and wild berries, while more than 500 local varieties of grapes have been recorded, although only 300 are grown today.

Georgia once had diversified agricultural production. Not long ago, widely cultivated crops included millet, rye, endemic wheat varieties, chickpea, lentil, beans and peavine, as well as plants grown for their oil and fiber content. Today, many of these crops are absent or under-represented in the local farming systems. Agricultural practices over the last 70-80 years have resulted in significant erosion of agro-biodiversity, which has undermined crop production sustainability. The collapse of the Soviet Union aggravated biodiversity loss due to difficulties of the transition period, collapse of the extension system and the absence of appropriate policies for conservation and sustainable agro-biodiversity use.

In Soviet times most family plots and collective farms grew introduced varieties and local landraces were generally only cultivated by agricultural research centers. When state funding ceased, the process of agro-biodiversity loss intensified as valuable collections and stocks of landraces began to deteriorate. At the same time, farmers found themselves stuck with introduced varieties that needed quantities of agrochemicals and water that they could neither provide nor purchase. Although local varieties would have performed much better, they were not available for planting and the research centers lacked capacity to assist farmers to reintroduce them.

Project description

The UNDP-GEF project was launched in 2004 in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of South Georgia in order to remove the institutional, knowledge and market barriers that hamper the conservation and sustainable use of the region’s agro-biodiversity. Project interventions include the establishment of sources of primary seed and planting material for the threatened crops and fruit varieties and the strengthening of local farmers’ associations as the main vehicles for production.

The project has two immediate objectives. The first is the on-farm conservation of selected local agricultural biodiversity in Samtskhe-Javakheti, historically the main granary of Georgia, on a pilot demonstration basis. The second is to develop and implement a strategy for replication of best lessons learned in conservation and utilization of local agricultural biodiversity to other Georgian regions.

As well as distributing seed and planting material, the project helps farmers access markets, including specialist markets for organic products. It works to facilitate experience-sharing among farmers and enhance information access to farmers, authorities, research stations, donors and other stakeholders.

The project has therefore promoted community-driven, on-farm initiatives supported through supplies of seed and planting materials, knowledge dissemination, marketing efforts, and publicity in order to re-introduce indigenous varieties to the Samtske-Javakheti region.