Today we completed our Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture workshops in Bareti. Bareti is a small village located in the Tsalka Municipality of Southern Georgia. The Tsalka municipality is located in the Kvemo-Kartli region known in Georgia for its fertile soil, access to water resources, and the potential for development of agriculture. This region is also in one of the most ethnically diverse municipalities in the region. In the early 1990’s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tsalka was facing a number of socio-economic development challenges related to the migration of the local Greek population returning to Greece resulting in the abandonment of buildings and property ownership issues. This later caused property ownership conflicts between immigrants resulting from poor land management. Later, the region received an influx of ecological migrants during 2000-2008 from mountainous regions of Georgia (Svaneti and Adjara) that were affected by natural disasters such as landslides, floods, mudflows, etc. Bareti is located about 30 minutes by car from Tsalka, the largest city in the municipality. Bareti is at 1,620 meters (5314 feet) altitude and has a farming season from mid-May to late-August/mid-September.
Figures 1 and 2: The sign entering Bareti and one of the buildings at the entrance.
Prior to the trainings, my team and I conducted an agricultural needs and capacity assessment of Bareti to collect information on the needs and available agricultural resources, education, and capacity in these villages, and to make recommendations for long-term farm planning based on community needs. We first interviewed the village mayor who facilitated our household interviews with individual farmers. Ten farmers were interviewed who were selected by the mayor of the village to represent a variety of ages, affluence, and land size. Farmers were interviewed with both general agricultural technique questions and specific interest questions about potato production
Following the Agriculture Needs and Capacity Assessment, we held three days of intensive sustainable agriculture workshops for villagers in Bareti. We presented curriculum on basic concepts in soil science, plant nutrient management, irrigation, and general potato farming techniques with the overall focus on potato production. The workshops emphasized the utilization of cost-effective materials and approaches to reduce both soil degradation and dependence on synthetic nutrient and pest management methods
The Kvemo-Kartli region grows approximately 20% of Georgia’s potatoes, the second largest region in potato production.[1] Due to climatic and dietary reasons, almost every family in Bareti farms potatoes. Some farmers grow large quantities of potatoes for production while others grow potatoes in their home gardens to feed their families through the year. A 2017 market analysis report indicates that the average potato production in the Kvemo-Kartli region is 10.83 tons per hectare whereas the average for developed countries is 40-60 tons per hectare.[2] Because of the commonality of potatoes and the low production amount, we decided to target our workshops to potato care and production.
The first day of the trainings was a little rough, mostly because of the language barrier. It took my client, Kakha Bakhtadze, and I to get in the groove of teaching and translating. At first I would say too long of sentences for him to translate, then too short so it took me a while to gauge where I should be stopping. In the beginning of the first day, there seemed to me to be disorder and confusion among the villagers. Later, it was explained to me that their dialect is very expressive, which I took to be yelling and hostility, while they are merely asking questions and explaining their situations.
Teaching the first day of the workshops.
Day two was by far the most popular day. This is the day that we conducted soil tests on the soil that the farmers brought from either their home plots or their commercial farms. One of the farmers told me that no one had ever done any soil tests on their land. They had no knowledge of what was in their soil. As we tested their soil with our test kits, the villagers were enthralled with our actions. They explained that it was the first time anyone had brought anything like this and that we looked like mad scientists. We found that the while the home plots were high in nutrients, the commercial land was stripped of any plant essential nutrients. This is because they use more organic methods in their home plots and more conventional methods in their farming plots and this was reflective of what we had been talking about in our previous lectures.
Top - conducting soil texture tests, bottom - conducting soil nutrient tests.
By the end of the week, I found that the foundational agricultural knowledge is present in the village. What the farmers lack is a deeper understanding of scientific concepts and application on a large scale. For example, a villager explained that she had observed that her crop of carrots always did particularly well following a planting of beans. This occurrence has been scientifically proven, but the villager lacked the understanding that the beans are in the legume family which fixes nitrogen in the soil so any crop following beans would have a higher yield. Those who have access to this knowledge can then apply these concepts to large-scale agriculture in the form of legume cover crops. Yet without this educational component, villagers are left with the anecdotal reasoning for the positive and negative effects of some practices and no way to apply these concepts to a larger scale or expand the realm of possibilities.
Although they lack the technical training, what astounded me the most about the villagers was their capacity to learn. At first I was afraid that my teaching would be opposed, that I would be contested at every point. I had been told that these people are stuck in their ways and do not want to improve. While I did have to defend some topics, is not that they do not want to learn or improve, it is that they do not have the luxury to try something new without knowing it will work. I am hopeful that my students will have the confidence and the knowledge to at least pilot more sustainable techniques. I am also hopeful that the Bareti Farm Development Project (a large plot of land near Bareti that has been bought and managed by partners who are interested in developing the area) will be able to be a leading pilot of sustainable practices for the community.
The last day ended in the last two topics, an extravagant cake, and kind words from the villagers. I was so humbled by their praises and gifts. They asked me to stay forever, made me promise to come back, and thanked me for “taking our problems to heart”. I fell in love with this community. Their kindness and willingness to learn is reflective of the potential for growth in this village and I cannot wait to see what project will be next.
Left - the cake at the end of the trainings, right - the villagers who remained to help clean up on the last day.
[1] http://enpard.ge/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Potato-Market-Analysis-Report.pdf
[2] http://enpard.ge/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Potato-Market-Analysis-Report.pdf
Figures 1 and 2: The sign entering Bareti and one of the buildings at the entrance.
Prior to the trainings, my team and I conducted an agricultural needs and capacity assessment of Bareti to collect information on the needs and available agricultural resources, education, and capacity in these villages, and to make recommendations for long-term farm planning based on community needs. We first interviewed the village mayor who facilitated our household interviews with individual farmers. Ten farmers were interviewed who were selected by the mayor of the village to represent a variety of ages, affluence, and land size. Farmers were interviewed with both general agricultural technique questions and specific interest questions about potato production
Following the Agriculture Needs and Capacity Assessment, we held three days of intensive sustainable agriculture workshops for villagers in Bareti. We presented curriculum on basic concepts in soil science, plant nutrient management, irrigation, and general potato farming techniques with the overall focus on potato production. The workshops emphasized the utilization of cost-effective materials and approaches to reduce both soil degradation and dependence on synthetic nutrient and pest management methods
The Kvemo-Kartli region grows approximately 20% of Georgia’s potatoes, the second largest region in potato production.[1] Due to climatic and dietary reasons, almost every family in Bareti farms potatoes. Some farmers grow large quantities of potatoes for production while others grow potatoes in their home gardens to feed their families through the year. A 2017 market analysis report indicates that the average potato production in the Kvemo-Kartli region is 10.83 tons per hectare whereas the average for developed countries is 40-60 tons per hectare.[2] Because of the commonality of potatoes and the low production amount, we decided to target our workshops to potato care and production.
The first day of the trainings was a little rough, mostly because of the language barrier. It took my client, Kakha Bakhtadze, and I to get in the groove of teaching and translating. At first I would say too long of sentences for him to translate, then too short so it took me a while to gauge where I should be stopping. In the beginning of the first day, there seemed to me to be disorder and confusion among the villagers. Later, it was explained to me that their dialect is very expressive, which I took to be yelling and hostility, while they are merely asking questions and explaining their situations.
Teaching the first day of the workshops.
Day two was by far the most popular day. This is the day that we conducted soil tests on the soil that the farmers brought from either their home plots or their commercial farms. One of the farmers told me that no one had ever done any soil tests on their land. They had no knowledge of what was in their soil. As we tested their soil with our test kits, the villagers were enthralled with our actions. They explained that it was the first time anyone had brought anything like this and that we looked like mad scientists. We found that the while the home plots were high in nutrients, the commercial land was stripped of any plant essential nutrients. This is because they use more organic methods in their home plots and more conventional methods in their farming plots and this was reflective of what we had been talking about in our previous lectures.
Top - conducting soil texture tests, bottom - conducting soil nutrient tests.
By the end of the week, I found that the foundational agricultural knowledge is present in the village. What the farmers lack is a deeper understanding of scientific concepts and application on a large scale. For example, a villager explained that she had observed that her crop of carrots always did particularly well following a planting of beans. This occurrence has been scientifically proven, but the villager lacked the understanding that the beans are in the legume family which fixes nitrogen in the soil so any crop following beans would have a higher yield. Those who have access to this knowledge can then apply these concepts to large-scale agriculture in the form of legume cover crops. Yet without this educational component, villagers are left with the anecdotal reasoning for the positive and negative effects of some practices and no way to apply these concepts to a larger scale or expand the realm of possibilities.
Although they lack the technical training, what astounded me the most about the villagers was their capacity to learn. At first I was afraid that my teaching would be opposed, that I would be contested at every point. I had been told that these people are stuck in their ways and do not want to improve. While I did have to defend some topics, is not that they do not want to learn or improve, it is that they do not have the luxury to try something new without knowing it will work. I am hopeful that my students will have the confidence and the knowledge to at least pilot more sustainable techniques. I am also hopeful that the Bareti Farm Development Project (a large plot of land near Bareti that has been bought and managed by partners who are interested in developing the area) will be able to be a leading pilot of sustainable practices for the community.
The last day ended in the last two topics, an extravagant cake, and kind words from the villagers. I was so humbled by their praises and gifts. They asked me to stay forever, made me promise to come back, and thanked me for “taking our problems to heart”. I fell in love with this community. Their kindness and willingness to learn is reflective of the potential for growth in this village and I cannot wait to see what project will be next.
Left - the cake at the end of the trainings, right - the villagers who remained to help clean up on the last day.
[1] http://enpard.ge/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Potato-Market-Analysis-Report.pdf
[2] http://enpard.ge/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Potato-Market-Analysis-Report.pdf
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