Grant Competition to Promote Georgian Farmers
The new grant program will connect farmers with the market and healthy products with consumers, Raimund Jehle, a representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted for BusinessPartner TV.
The joint project of FAO/ENPARD named as “Support for Georgia’s Agriculture Sector” has a budget of 12 million EUR and the deadline for submitting applications is the 30th of November. Applications should be registered on the website www.faogrant.ge. The second phase of submitting applications will start on January 1, 2020, and end on March 31, 2020. At the same time, the website’s administration stresses that writing applications will not be accepted.
According to the FAO representative, this project which offers grants and technical assistance, will help farmers enter the market, on the one hand, and foster improvements in the quality of agricultural products for consumers, on the other hand.
“This project backed by EU makes accents on grants, on the one hand, and technical assistance, on the other hand. This is an excellent mechanism for improving the condition of farmers. Farmers will have access to modern technologies to improve production, and make it more efficient.
Many farmers produce high-quality products, but they do not have access to the market. In practice, we connect farmers with the market and healthy products with the consumers. The consumers should have full information about the origins of products. This is a good opportunity for developing additional technologies, introducing extension services, and arranging consultation centers so that farmers increase productivity and incomes”, Raimund Jehle said.
The key objective of the FAO/ ENPARD grant initiative is to improve access for household economies, cooperatives, small and medium entrepreneurs to financial resources, services and production equipment. The process is to boost the competitive capacity of the agricultural sector, and create better living conditions for village residents.
The competition is composed of two grant categories. Agricultural initiatives will be funded in the first category for farmers, cooperatives and Georgia-incorporated small and medium enterprises in Lagodekhi, Borjomi, Kazbegi, Dedoplistskaro, Tetritskaro, Akhalkalaki, Khulo, Keda are the municipalities where agriculture projects are being implemented under the program ENPARD. Capital investments, such as machineries and equipment and technical equipment will be financed in all agricultural sectors.
In the second grant category, grants will be issued for farmers, cooperatives and Georgia-registered small and medium enterprises in the agricultural sector in the Akhaltsikhe, Dusheti, Khelvachauri, Shuakhevi, Marneuli, Bolnisi, Dmanisi and Gardabani municipalities. In this category, capital investments will be financed in the following sectors: cattle-breeding, dairy production, potato production (Tsalka, Ninotsminda and Aspindza), vegetable production (Kvareli, Gurjaani, Sighnaghi) and grain production (Sighnaghi).
Under the grant competition, operational and turnover costs will not be funded: salaries of employees, costs for agricultural raw materials and seeds. The minimal amount of a grant in both categories must be 1,000 USD in GEL, and with a maximum of 150,000 USD in GEL. The program provides 40% co-funding opportunity. Consequently, applicants must finance the remaining 60% of the budget.
The program also calls for funding those special investments that will have a definitive positive impact on the state economy, social condition and environment protection. Funding of these specific projects may increase to 60%.
Raimund Jehle noted that special attention should be paid to the safety of animal products and their origins under another FAO/EMAPRD project called the Project for the Registration and Identification of Animals. The FAO representatives suggest that farmers register cattle with the aim to increase incomes.
“Consumers need high-quality products. In the case of cattle-breeding, we must always meet international standards, and Georgian consumers want to see these standards on the Georgian market. It is necessary to ensure the identification of these animals, because this component enables us to effectively register cattle. We do not mean only cows and sheep, but also other animals. We should pay special attention to issues relating to safety, the identification of animals and origin of meat products. The key goal of this project is a cattle identification program, and farmers themselves will do little in this regard. They should make sure that the implementation of this project will grow their income. In this case, farmers will be able to better protect against animal diseases”, Raimund Jehle told BusinessPartner.