On June 29, at the Tbilisi office of USAID G4G, a round table discussion about Agricultural Land Registration Reform was held. The meeting was organized by the ISET Policy Institute under the “ReforMeter” project. During the meeting, the land registration process and achievements and challenges of the land market in the country were all discussed. Irakli Kochlamazashvili from the ISET Policy Institute then presented a policy paper on Agricultural Land Registration Reform in Georgia, which was elaborated with support from the Presidential Administration of Georgia.

The goal of the study was to better understand the current situation of the land registration process in Georgia, analyze the ongoing land reforms and outline the challenges of land market development in the country. Existing literature about the Georgian land market and best international practices on different approaches of land registration (e.g., sporadic and systemic approaches) was closely analyzed, and over 120 Georgian farmers in all regions of Georgia were surveyed; in addition, interviews with the main stakeholders were conducted to achieve an overarching perspective. Based on the collected information, recommendations on improving the agricultural land registration process in Georgia were formulated.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Georgian Parliament and various state authorities, as well as non-governmental and research organizations. In addition, the meeting was attended by representatives of farmers’ associations, banks and land measuring units (land surveyors), as well as land registration and agricultural sector experts. During the last part of the meeting, the attending audience had the opportunity to ask questions and express their own opinions about ongoing land market development efforts.