Fulbright Scholar Returns to ISET
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ISET’s Pati Mamardashvili, the head of Agricultural Policy Research Center, has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research in the USA. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, contributing to finding solutions to shared concerns. The main criteria for the selection in the program are academic merit and leadership potential.
Pati spent four months (September-December 2017) at Texas Tech University (TTU), collaborating on research into the wine sector. Dr. Natalia Velikova and Dr. Tim Dodd were Pati’s academic hosts at TTU. In addition to conducting research, Pati attended academic talks and held guest lectures at the host university.
Reformeter Evaluates Georgia’s Agricultural Development
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On December 14 2017, the second phase of ReforMeter started with an evaluation of Georgia’s agricultural development.
According to a Government Survey, 74.9% of the strategy has already been implemented. In the first phase, the same indicator was at 69.5%, although improvement of the Ministry of Agriculture organizational structure is still in process. The Ministry is currently implementing the following projects: gene-bank development for the conservation of agro-diversity and endemic species, scientific research on storage and processing methods, and the rational use of soil. In order to support agricultural cooperation, the following new projects were introduced: cooperative support programs in the viticulture sector, a State Program to Support Beekeeping Agricultural Co-operatives, and a program for the rational utilization of pasture and meadows. It was stated that the Agriculture Registry does not exist yet, the seed/planting material certification is still in process and a geo-information system, an analog to the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), does not exist either. The total area of irrigated land was increased by 2000 ha and drained land area sby 1900 ha as well. In addition, the creation of a modern DNA laboratory and the seed/planting material certification system is in process.
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