Abasha: Otar Shamugia the minister of environment protection and agriculture of Georgia recently attended the process of blueberry planting in the sepieti village of Abasha municipality of Georgia.
He was in the garden being managed by the company “Geo Agro Eastate”. He was accompanied by the Davit Tsitlidze who is the director of the agency of rural development. The company “Geo agro East” has employed 100 to 200 locals for the successful completion of the plant transplantation. The plantation drive is being executed under the project namely “Plant the future.”
It is to be specifically mentioned that the company Geo agro estate has been building this new garden with the financial assistance of 250,000 GEL. The total area of the garden will be 17 hectares.
The director of the rural development agency David Tsitlidze stated that “Blueberry plantation is one of the new cultures in Georgia, which is being developed within the framework of state programs support. We have financed up to 2800 hectares of gardens, most of them are in mass production and the crops are exported to foreign countries.”
“Last year the revenue from blueberry exports exceeded 20 million. Construction of the new garden will continue under the “Plant Future” program moreover demand for funding for the new blueberry garden is very high. Beneficiaries in the blueberry garden business benefit from concessionary agro credit, allowing them to earn more. I want to point out here that for quality crops, it is important to know farmers needs and train them to use new technologies, added director.”
Notably to support the primary production of Blueberry plants, within the framework of the “Plant the Future” program an amount of 53.5 million GEL is being spent for the construction of blueberry gardens on 2,836 hectares. It also includes 31,6 million GEL for the construction of gardens on 1,688 hectare in the Samegrelo region as well.
It was interesting to see that the minister himself planted some seedling with the local people and got a huge appreciation for close interaction with the common people.
