FAO in Georgia

In 2004 the FAO Sub-regional Representative for Central and Eastern Europe was accredited as FAO Representative in Georgia. The FAO Representation Office was inaugurated in Tbilisi on 4 November 2004, and a post of Assistant FAO Representative (Programme) has been established.

FAO mandate in Georgia is to support national efforts to promote food security and sustainable development. FAO priorities in Georgia reflect the objectives and priorities of the Government set in the EDPRP as well as in other strategy papers relating to agricultural development. The essence of the FAO priorities is to assist the Government in creating and enforcing an institutional, legal and regulatory environment. In light of recent positive political and economic changes in the country, FAO has begun to focus on promoting the Governmental Cooperation Programme in Georgia.

The government approach towards economic and social reforms implies alleviating current poverty by means of intense and sustainable economic growth. Readiness of the Government to target the national development policy, which is aimed at progressive integration into European structures and standards, is widely demonstrated.

Agriculture is one of the main pillars of Georgian economy. At present, the agriculture and food processing sector accounts for approximately 20 percent of GDP. More than half of the economically active population of Georgia is engaged in agriculture and slightly less than half of the population lives in rural areas. Development of agriculture is expected to play one of the key roles as a strong poverty-compensating factor for the food-insecure and thus highly vulnerable share of population. The Government’s agriculture development strategy emphasizes expansion of high value-added agricultural and food exports where the country has a comparative advantage.

Georgia is a highly disaster-prone country. In the past it has been frequently affected by serious natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, floods, landslides and avalanches. Georgia’s institutional disaster management capacities are very limited in terms of disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response.

Accordingly, the Organization discharges its many functions through the offering of technical assistance in the form of project requests made by or through the Government.