France Assists Georgia in Improving the Database of Vine Varieties

The French side will assist Georgia in improving the database of vine varieties.

Director of the Agricultural Research Center Levan Ujmajuridze met with Cecil Marshall, Director of the Vine Genetic Resources Collection of the French National Institute of Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE).

The parties inspected the vine collections and ongoing works in the laboratories at the test-dismantling base of Jigaura perennial crops.

They also talked about the process of certification of planting material, which has been carried out by the state since 2016. In order to arrange high-quality basic nurseries, screen greenhouses were set up at the Jigaura base in 2021 with the financial support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), from where buds and rootstocks will be propagated to nurseries.

It is noteworthy that up to 5,000 specimens from 55 countries are collected at the Vassal Montpellier Vine Biological Resources Center under the INRAE; There are about 2600 varieties of cultivated vines and about 400 forms of wild vines. The collection also preserves 400 rootstocks and various species of the genus Vitis.

The Agricultural Research Center signed a memorandum of cooperation in 2019 with the French National Institute of Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). The memorandum envisages the development of joint projects and the study of the diversity of vine varieties grown on the bases under the subordination of the agencies, the exchange of specialists, information and joint scientific-research work.