EU, UN agriculture organisation provide 3 million GEL grants to Georgian farmers in 2020

The European Union and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation awarded grants amounting to three million GEL ($937,500/€748,000) to Georgian farmers in 2020, with the next stage of grants worth 2.6 million GEL in the process of being delivered, an end-of-year release by the international bodies said on Tuesday.

Aiding and enabling mechanisation for land processing and production, provision of cattle farming equipment, and hardware for large-scale dairy and vegetable production were among the ways the EU and FAO contributed to the country's agricultural sector in the reality of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The efforts had goals of increasing production, creating jobs and preventing food supply instability, the organisations noted in their summary, while a particular attention was also paid to environmentally aware methods of reducing expenses.

For promoting and supporting climate-smart, cost-reducing agricultural methods, the EU and FAO massively contributed in procuring and installing drip irrigation systems for farmers," the release said.

Farmers, households, cooperatives and small and mid-size enterprises benefited from the grants in municipalities across Georgia, from the mountainous Kazbegi and Khulo to Gurjaani in the east of the country and Akhaltsikhe in the south.

The matching grant programme is aimed at easing producers’ access to innovation and make farms and agricultural enterprises more sustainable and resilient in the times of the pandemic," EU-FAO Programme Coordinator Javier Sanz Alvarez said in comments about the grants.

Run under the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development, the EU and FAO efforts helped farmers in 22 municipalities throughout the year.

The release also said the grants had supported local farmers "at a critical time" of the complications created by the pandemic, and said further 18 applications for grants, amounting to 2.6 million GEL, were in the process of being delivered.

The ENPARD programme has been active in Georgia since 2013 with a budget of €179.5 million, and aims to reduce rural poverty in Georgia.