The Feasibility of Averting Collapse: the Resurgence of Georgia's Agricultural Sector

Abstract

About half of Georgia's workforce are farmers to some extent and size, and agriculture and rural identities are fundamental components of the nation's identity. Georgia's economic and societal collapse during the 1990s ruined the agricultural sector, which was also largely neglected during Saakashvili's neoliberal reform government (2004-2012). In the last few years, however, there has been a noticeable incipient revival of agriculture; this is largely due to a coherent set of ambitious policies, including innovative private-public partnerships, the re-establishment of the food safety systems and the promotion of market-driven small farmers' cooperatives. These policies are already delivering results, including improvements in productivity, production and exports. Georgian agriculture, as "third-world" as it was in the 1990s, was one of the worst among the post-communist countries for more than two decades but is now becoming a promising economic sector.