LocationsA digital platform helps Georgian farmers make better decisions in a changing climate
When Climate Meets Technology
October 26, 2026
Photo: UNDP | Nino Zedginidze
As digital technology reshapes our lives, one question keeps coming up: are we applying it to the most important challenges in the right ways? As we strive to build a better future, are we tackling environmental problems, for example, while protecting jobs, incomes, and livelihoods?
We may never fully know the answers, of course. But in Georgia’s rural communities, technology is already making a practical difference, helping farmers make better decisions, protect their crops, and face an increasingly unpredictable climate with greater confidence.
These innovations aren’t emerging from high-tech urban centres or cutting-edge research labs. They are reaching small villages, where farmers tend vineyards and orchards and work hard to adapt to changing weather patterns and rising climate risks.
For farmers, reliable information can make all the difference. Knowing when rain is expected, spotting the risk of pests and diseases early, or understanding when crops need watering can help them think ahead, protect their harvests, and make the most of their resources.
That is where digital technology comes in.
A new digital platform, GECSA (Georgia Climate Services for Agriculture), puts essential climate information and practical farming advice at farmers’ fingertips. With just a few taps on their smartphones, up to 1,200 farmers in Georgia’s two agricultural regions, Kakheti and Shida Kartli, can access:
- Daily, hourly, and seasonal weather forecasts
- Information on climate risks
- Pest and disease alerts
- Irrigation recommendations
- Tailored agricultural advice
Behind this information is a network of 57 weather stations, including six innovative 3D-printed models. Combining printed components with smart sensors, they offer an affordable way to collect high-quality weather data while reducing reliance on costly imported equipment.
Installed in vineyards, orchards, cornfields, and other agricultural plots, the stations monitor conditions that can affect crops and contribute to pest and disease outbreaks. They measure temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind, solar radiation, and even leaf wetness - key indicators of conditions that can favour certain plant diseases.
The data is automatically sent to GECSA’s digital platform, where it is turned into practical farming advice, climate risk alerts, and early warnings. This helps farmers move beyond simply reacting to changing weather and make more informed decisions before problems arise.
Currently being piloted in two regions, the network has the potential to expand to other parts of Georgia, bringing reliable climate information to more farmers and helping them protect their crops, livelihoods, and future in a changing climate.
GECSA was developed with expertise from Seoul National University, in partnership with Georgia’s Rural Development Agency, the National Environmental Agency, the National Food Agency, the Georgian Farmers’ Association and the Scientific-Research Centre of Agriculture.
The platform is one of the initiatives under UNDP’s broader climate programme, supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Government of Georgia, and the Government of Switzerland.
Davit Mosulishvili is checking pest alerts while working in his vineyard
Photo: UNDP | Nino Zedginidze
Old Roots, New Technology
Davit Mosulishvili runs Dano Winery and tends a small vineyard in Khornabuji, a village in Sighnaghi Municipality. Winemaking has been part of his family’s story for generations. Today, Davit is carrying that tradition forward with a modern twist: his 1.8-hectare vineyard, planted with Georgia’s iconic Rkatsiteli grapes, is cultivated entirely using organic methods.
But keeping a vineyard healthy is becoming increasingly difficult as the climate changes. The dry, sunny spring and summer weather that grape growers value is giving way to heavier rainfall, particularly in May and June. Higher humidity creates favourable conditions for fungal diseases such as downy mildew and powdery mildew. The risks are especially high during flowering, when an outbreak can damage both vine leaves and developing grapes.
For Davit, these risks became painfully real in 2023. Persistent rain fuelled a severe downy mildew outbreak, and he lost almost his entire harvest; a devastating blow for a small farmer.
The experience taught him just how much timely weather information and early warnings can matter.
Today, he has a new tool to help him protect his vines: GECSA, a digital platform that provides climate information and alerts about potential crop diseases.
“GECSA is a great help. It provides advance information about the risk of downy mildew that would otherwise go unnoticed, as the disease is not visible until it has already spread,” Davit explains.
With timely alerts about potential grapevine diseases, Davit can take preventive action before an outbreak takes hold. Instead of following a fixed treatment calendar, he can make decisions based on the actual risks facing his vineyard.
“For farmers today, it is essential to move away from calendar-based schedules and adopt a modern approach grounded in informed decision-making,” he says.
GECSA also helps Davit decide when his vineyard needs watering, giving him another way to manage his crops in changing weather conditions.
He believes that more weather monitoring stations across a wider area would make forecasts and disease warnings even more accurate and useful to local farmers.
For Davit, technology is not about replacing generations of farming knowledge. It is about strengthening that knowledge with timely, reliable information to make better decisions, protect his harvest, and carry his family’s winemaking tradition into an uncertain climate future.
Apple harvest at Baratashvili's farm
Photo: UNDP | Nino Zedginidze
Nine Frost Warnings, One Saved Orchard
For Temur and Natalia Baratashvili, farming is a family undertaking built on a decade of hard work. Their orchard in Khashuri Municipality is home to an impressive variety of fruit trees, including apples, pears, sweet cherries, peaches and plums, each bringing its own challenges as the weather becomes less predictable.
Two years ago, the family added GECSA to their farming toolkit. The digital platform helps them track weather conditions, assess climate risks, and make better-informed decisions about their orchard.
When might frost strike? Is heavy rainfall on the way? Are conditions becoming favourable for pests or diseases? GECSA helps the family find answers to these questions in time to act.
April 2026 offered a powerful example of its practical value. According to Temur, GECSA issued frost-risk alerts on nine occasions that month. The timely warnings gave him the chance to take protective measures and save his orchard from frost damage.
But frost is only one of the risks he watches. Temur also uses GECSA to monitor relative humidity, wind, rainfall, and receive information on pests and diseases. The platform can help him anticipate changes in pest populations and identify conditions that favour fruit-boring insects, like codling moth, and fungal diseases, like apple scab.
An experienced farmer, Temur never stops learning. He sees new technology as a way to strengthen practical farming knowledge and make better decisions.
“Using new technology is essential for understanding which fruit trees can be grown in specific climate conditions. This is my advice to those just starting in farming,” he says.
For Temur, GECSA's value comes down to a simple principle: know your environment, understand how it is changing, anticipate risks, and make informed decisions.
In an increasingly unpredictable climate, that knowledge can help farmers protect years of hard work and give their orchards a better chance to flourish.
A 3D-printed weather station in Kakheti
Photo: UNDP | Nino Zedginidze
Technology That Works for People
GECSA is part of UNDP’s wider effort to bring the benefits of modern technology closer to people across Georgia. Whether helping farmers protect their crops, giving students new ways to learn, or helping communities prepare for extreme weather, the goal is the same: make innovation practical, accessible, and useful in everyday life.
“Technology makes a real difference when it reaches people where they are and helps them meet the challenges they face. From a farmer protecting a vineyard to a young person developing a green idea, digital solutions can open new opportunities, strengthen resilience and improve lives. Our task is to ensure these opportunities reach everyone and help build a greener, more inclusive and sustainable future for Georgia,” says Douglas Webb, UNDP Resident Representative in Georgia.
Across Georgia, UNDP works with national institutions, local communities, and international partners to turn this vision into action.
Bringing knowledge closer to communities:
With support from Switzerland, UNDP helps modernise agricultural education and expand access to practical skills and digital learning. These initiatives bring new knowledge and opportunities to people beyond major cities and support them to develop skills for a changing economy.
- Nine e-learning modules, covering topics from soil management to pest control, are helping students and agricultural extension officers learn through a combination of online and in-person training.
- A new 360-degree self-assessment system is being used across 64 vocational colleges, supported by a digital platform where students, teachers, and employers can contribute to quality reviews.
- By 2025, more than 25,000 users have accessed these digital learning tools.
See: Modernising Vocational Education and Training in Georgia
Staying one step ahead of climate:
Reliable weather information and early warnings can help communities prepare for extreme weather and reduce the risks to lives and livelihoods. With support from the GCF and Switzerland, in partnership with Georgia’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, UNDP helps Georgia strengthen its climate monitoring and forecasting systems and build a stronger foundation for climate resilience.
- A network of 150 weather monitoring stations has been installed across Georgia, comprising 94 meteorological, 43 hydrometeorological and 13 agrometeorological stations. Data from the wider monitoring system helps inform Georgia’s public weather portal, METEO.GOV.GE.
- A new upper-air sounding system has been installed in Poti. Using weather balloons and specialised instruments, it collects vital climate information and helps improve forecasts and early warnings of extreme weather.
- Geological monitoring stations have been installed at 11 locations prone to landslides.
- In cooperation with the Finnish Meteorological Institute, UNDP supported upgrades to the information and communication technology systems used by Georgia’s hydrometeorological services. Development of the SartMet and SmartAlert mobile applications is nearing completion, aiming to make weather forecasts and climate information more reliable and accessible.
See: Reducing the Risk of Climate-driven Disasters
Making clean air information accessible to all:
With support from the European Union and in partnership with the World Health Organization, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and the Environment Agency Austria, UNDP helps expand Georgia’s air quality monitoring network with 10 automated stations.
These stations measure air pollution in real time and transmit the results to the public air quality portal, AIR.GOV.GE. By making reliable information easier to access, the system helps people understand local air quality and supports evidence-based decisions to tackle pollution.
See: UN Joint Programme for Clean Air in Georgia
Inspiring a generation of green changemakers:
With support from the European Union and Denmark, UNDP works with communities across Georgia to promote circular practices, advance a green and just transition, and create opportunities for young people to contribute to change.
- Chompo-Calypse, a digital game that teaches waste sorting, sparked a youth campaign, bringing together young people from across the country.
- Up to 30 Young Digital Ambassadors from Khobi and Poti are learning, experimenting with technology, and developing ideas for local projects that can contribute to the digital, green future of their municipalities.
See: UN Joint Programme for Circular Economy and UNDP’s regional programme for Green Transition
From classrooms to orchards, these initiatives reach people all over Georgia and show what technology can achieve when it responds to real needs.
For farmers like Davit, Temur and Natalia, the climate app is more than data on a screen.
It is a chance to protect years of hard work and face growing uncertainty with even greater confidence.
It’s the promise of technology for sustainable development: digital solutions are more than tools; they are pathways to the future that works for everyone.
Background
With US$74 million in funding from the GCF, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Georgian Government, UNDP helps Georgia rethink its climate resilience to protect people and the economy from climate-driven disasters. This major seven-year effort draws on partnerships with the public and civic sectors, local communities, and international development partners. More information is available here.
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