Before preparing myself for the article, I was contemplating a lot about how to express my ideas, so that neither form nor the concept was ruined.  I want to write about agriculture and do it using a simple language.  As I grew up in post-soviet Georgia and emotionally or by actual behavior I was a part of it, I decided to dig into my own memory instead of looking at popular economic narratives.
I will try to skip very early dark, cold but sometime somewhat infantile memories.
I often heard people – the ones familiar with the topic and those not familiar, or those just wanting to forget about their own problems – discuss the economy of our country.  I was still an adolescent and very curious about everything. These discussions did not influence on me but gradually led me to become an economist.
In my consciousness there still are clear images of fragmented portraits of the first “Economists” – deep-wrinkled forehead, suntanned faces with dewy eyes, with cracked hands spread with honesty and disappointed with the vision of future stuck in the past fed by the smoking “Kerasinka” during the daytime, and the dim light from the lamp and the smell of oil at night.  I don’t remember the case when they expressed content from the existing situation or from the prospects.  Already from 2011 it became obvious that there was truth to it. 
That time we lived in the village. Due to some circumstances there was a specific snobbish idea that formed in my mind. The worst reflection of the snobbish attitude toward anything connected with village was to create that negative emotion. The all-provincial-hating snobbish teenager, I became so imprudent, that at the age of 13 I chose my own position for the economic policy. Elder talked about the necessity of paying attention to agriculture. Instead, we – the young people, who had never worked for the living, we found it offensive to directly associate our country with the future village.  Gradually it became obvious that we dreamt about economic welfare brought by white-collar, fed by civilization and as a result done with neat fingers business.
My attitude changed with the age and experience. Today I already know where the tangible economic welfare is created. But my intention is not to write a memoir. In reality, I am trying to analyze the logic of neglecting agricultural development during the implementation of economic policy of the country.  Now I am trying to analyze the reasons for neglecting the industry.
A young, favoring western values, ambitious, lacking experience but being educated in English team came into power.  Tourism became the country’s economic locomotive speeding toward Euro-Atlantic space. Respectively, the industry became the main motivator of economic activity. On the other hand, agriculture became very unpopular.
Very soon the agriculture was declared the concern of under - developed countries. In my opinion this was a surge of snobbery. And we, having taken no notice of it, rose above the image of poor country and started building up economy differently, at the expense of ruining village.
After mischievous 90s, as we all remember, the economic foundation was completely ruined. The wreckage of existing economic system and infrastructure was soon followed by wide range brain drain.
Later, the painful, but inevitable process of reevaluation started. Everything that connected the society with its recent history was dressed in a scarecrow gown and cursed. The same was true for the remains of the economy. The mechanisms of cooperative labor were ruined and in a manner that no positive experience from it was left. Nonetheless the return of cooperative labor in agrarian industry is much higher compared to individual labor.
The agriculture is left without functional infrastructure. Currently the low level of technical and technologic means is kept. There are no nursery and seedling gardens. As a result, the quality of local agricultural cultures has deteriorated.
Villages are paralyzed economically speaking, which automatically results poor employment in the agricultural sector. People are forced to seek alternative ways of income, leave lands, villages, and families and mainly (at best) engage in small sales activities (of which they have no experience) in big cities. Thus, their perspective is entirely unpredictable and obscure. On the other hand, it is the unpopularity of agricultural labor. As a result, we have the countless, but large-scale internal migration. So, we disliked professions from agriculture.
We often hear of sceptic’s opinion about food self-supply.  Food products are mostly imported, and sadly, because of the limited inspection by the food safety authorities, we have no knowledge about how safe and of what quality these imported goods are.
The eco and bio products produced in Georgia are losing the competition with foreign products due to their prices and packaging.  Not only foreign but also the domestic markets are hardly available for Georgian products.
In 2010 share of agriculture in GDP of Georgia decreased to 7 % and that’s when 60% of people live in the rural areas. It’s unclear why 60 % of people create only the 7 % of GDP. There is that shadow economy thing going on and some systemic faults of the country statistics agency that proof the figures are conditional and inaccurate, but is pretty handy to illustrate the situation. Despite the fact that the Ministry of Agriculture of Ajara AR spends a lot for its budget of agricultural development, the effectiveness of the activities conducted is still extremely low.
According to the data from Ministry of Agriculture of Ajara AR only in 2006-2010 approximately 7 000 people were employed in agriculture (!). Recently, for completely other reasons, I was interested in agricultural businesses operating in mountainous Ajara and chose several from the list published by the ministry. It appears that in 2007 the production of Dutch black roses began in Khulo. The business employed seven people. They expected roses to be harvested this year and even that was covered with snow. The actual staff needed is 2-3 people per brief season. In Shuakhevi, one agricultural business really emplyees6 people instead of 14, and that’s also seasonal.
The shortage of farmland is another serious problem. In 90s as a result of reforms, the government gave each family residing in the rural area one hectare of land. In Ajara the statistics is such: one hectare of farmland per 5,3 persons, cropland is even scarcer- 37,5.
In 2009 only in Ajarian agricultural sector the import of vegetables is the second highest after the crop with the share of 25 %.
In Ajara 72 862 hectares are for household farming. Out of these only 10 309 hectares are being used. The data for Ajara AR on self-sufficiency based on annual nutrition standards in Georgia show: potatoes -257 %, vegetables - 24 %, fruits - 50 %. The farmers left alone are very inefficient.  Even though potato farming is the most productive business, in Ajara its productivity has decreased by half during last 25 years (in 2010 it was 209 centner, when average productivity during soviet period it was 400-450 centner. An International organization “CARE” tested new species of potatoes in Khulo in 2005 and the result was the same.
To eliminate the shortage existing on the local fruit and vegetable market, it would be enough, even with the existing crop capacity, to increase the vegetable farmland by 286 and fruit gardens by 321 hectares.
National statistics show the same figures on farmland through the years. The areas of perennial plantations remains the same. Even though most of the territories have been cleared by cutting down the trees, the rest was still infertile and for decades the seedlings have not been renewed intensively.  The trees inevitably get old and it’s reasonable, that due to this, the share of infertile areas increases. Around 50 % of the perennial seedlings are infertile. Besides there are more than 8 000 hectares of bogged area, which can be actively used in farming.
With its own capacities Ajara cannot satisfy the local demand for agricultural products. Moreover, it seems impossible in the near future, but with the right agrarian policy, it can satisfy the local need for vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat, fish and diary. It may also have opportunity to export the goods.
Lately, the global economy can be characterized by financial crises   and agflation, which is expressed by dramatic rise in the prices of agricultural commodities.
And there comes the question about what we are going to do in the future, shall we activate our farmland resources? Are we going to expand our farmlands?
Besides satisfying the domestic demand for agricultural products, one of the problems is employment. Also it’s important to create the groups of agricultural landlords and entrepreneurs.
The acute crisis in the agrarian industry is caused, along with many others, by inconsistence in the interests of agricultural and processing industry.
The branches of agricultural industry is a system effectiveness of which depends not only on the immanent qualities of its main components, but also the existing connections between the components. When this connections are properly working, the system is also effective. Respectively, the disconnection between these cause paralyses of the branches.
Actually, each year the real crop capacity falls behind the prognosis of the ministry. The market is flooded with low quality commodities.  The farmers are not able to save, thus cannot invest in the development of their business.
Sounds paradoxical, but we are trying to develop local tourism, we meet tourists with hands wide open, but have never offered them Georgian cuisine. If tourists try Georgian fruits and vegetables, both our villages and the economy would benefit. Now, neither happens.
As demand and prices on ecologic and bio products increase considerably, it seems necessary to prepare domestic agriculture for the changes in the global market processes. It seems that the snobbism declared many years ago, is cast away now and the agriculture is making its return in the strategic interests of the county again, but if we analyze the unsystematic and insensible steps which of course did not bring any significant positive financial results, it is doubtful that the newly strategized agriculture is just a tool for gaining political capital. I do not know how the appeal to the new economic policy will work on voters, but it is obvious that in the political mainstream the plank for the industry goes up an up. And while political will and the mechanism for execution of the will become available, it’s important to find an answer to the question - how?
In the end, I want to retrieve the positive attitude and hope from the beginning of the text. Through the years I have met many economists, those who had very different views about the Georgian agriculture, but never seen that kind of sincere position my “first economists” had. I do not want my article years from now to have the motive - we have a potential, but after the tourists leave, Georgian villages will get nothing but the automobile exhaust.

Nona Khudjadze, Expert economist

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