New Walnut Orchards to Be Cultivated within “Plant the Future” Program in Racha
The agricultural cooperative Velishiori in the village Khotevi of Ambrolauri Municipality involved in the state program Plant the Future on February 1, 2016 and has received the state financing in the amount of GEL 29,389.00 for planting of walnut orchards over 7 hectares and arrangement of the irrigation system.
The process of walnut orchard cultivation by the cooperative was introduced on-site to the Agricultural Projects Management Agency by the Plant the Future program manager Levan Dolidze, together with the Racha-Lechkhumi and Zemo-Svaneti governor Parmen Margvelidze and local government officials.
The area allocated for cultivation of new orchards and arrangement of irrigation system on a national scale currently totals 1296 ha, and the amount of funding exceeds 6.5 million GEL. By the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Project Management Agency started to implement the Plant the Future program in 2015. The program aims to provide the maximum support of the decrease of intended use of agricultural land, cultivation of perennial gardens and arrangement of nurseries.
The state co-financing in the framework of Plant the Future program in case of garden cultivation makes up 70% of the cost of seedlings, 50% of the cost of a drip irrigation system and 50% of the nursery arrangement cost.
In 2016 in the framework of the Plant the Future program there is planned to arrange 1000-1200 ha of the modern-type garden and 30-40 new, modern nurseries, which will contribute, on the one hand, to the replacement of the import with local products in the domestic market, and on the other hand, to the process of export potential growth.
The Agricultural Projects Management Agency since 2013 has implemented large-scale projects which are designed for the long-term development and which aims at fostering an environment that will promote competitiveness in agriculture, steady growth of high-quality products, food safety and food security.