Otar Shamugia visits village of Didi Mughanlo of Marneuli Municipality

Georgia: Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture Otar Shamugia, together with State Commissioner Giorgi Dokhturishvili, was in the village of Didi Mughanlo of Marneuli Municipality. He inspected the agriculture created with the state’s financial support and met with local farmers.

Otar Shamugia stated, “We are implementing more than 15 projects to support farmers.”

He mentioned, “We continue to meet with entrepreneurs and farmers in the regions; our goal is to get information from them on existing needs and make appropriate changes to 15 state-owned projects undergoing support, as well as to launch new programs that are even more tailored to farmers’ interests.” 

“The farm where we were is a good example of the success of government support in both setting up a garden and setting up a processing plant, which means creating added value on the site and allowing the farmer to do the job with more value, with more income, which is of course very important. We have hundreds of farmers financed and continue to support them,” the minister noted.

In the village of Did Mughanlo of Marneuli Municipality, Ltd. “Green House,” in 2021, within the framework of the program “Plant the Future,” built an 11 ha almond garden. State co-financing is about 75,000 GEL. As for the enterprise, launched at the end of 2023, the company used the project “Benefit Agrocredit” for its creation; the loan amount was 500,000 GEL. 

The company, which can process 100 tons of almonds a year, employs 11 locals and sells its products on the local market.

According to Koba Tabagar, the founder of the company “Green House,” state programs were essential support for the development of their business.

It is noteworthy that, within the framework of the state program “Plant the Future,” more than 25 million GEL is co-financed for 4,628 hectares of almonds, including 1,632 hectares in the Lower Kartli region, with 9,1 million GEL.

Within the framework of the project “Concentrated Agrocredit,” 23 loans worth more than 6,4 million GEL have been issued for almond processing. The Rural Development Agency’s co-financing amounted to more than 600,000 GEL. Among them, the concessionary agro credit issued in the lower Kartli region is more than 4,3 million GEL.