GEORGIAN EXPERIENCE

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GEORGIAN EXPERIENCE and Strategy for Future

• DAVID NAKANI
• Environmental Pollution Control Program
• DAREJAN KAPANADZE
• World Bank Office Tbilisi
• Georgia

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Structure of Presentation

• Background
• Project objectives
• Project implementation
• Challenges faced
• Successful solutions
• Outputs and impact
• Conclusions and future perspectives

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Background

• Main burning issue - soil erosion
• Pollution of rivers draining into the Black Sea
• Heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers
• Weak environmental regulations

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Background continued

• No3 - N concentrations in river waters are
  several times higher than EU water quality
  standards
• Higher chemical concentration in fruits and
  vegetables limits exports to EC markets
• Farmers lack skills to adopt modern farming
  methods that are environmentally sound
• Destruction of bio-diversity (flora and fauna)
• Deforestation for lack of fossil fuels

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Environment Pollution Control Program

• Preparation stage 1999 2001
• Technologies/best practices selected for
  extension
• Improved storage, handling and utilization of
  animal waste
• Recovery of degraded soils and sustainable land
  cultivation
• Environment friendly protection of crops and
  increase of productivity
• Monitoring quality of water and soil
• Implementation stage 2002-2006
• Demonstration and acquisition of the selected
  technologies
• Assessing their efficiency, impact and
  sustainability

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Objectives

• Promote efficient practices of on-farm nutrient
  management in the selected watersheds to reduce
  river water pollution and meet requirements of
  the EU Nitrate and Clean Water Directives
• Demonstrate and disseminate use of bio-gas
  digesters to reduce household demand for firewood
  and cut methane emissions into the atmosphere
• Carry out adaptive research, on-farm testing and
  extension of the advanced farming practices that
  improve productivity and decrease environmental
  damage

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Challenges Faced

• Choosing watersheds adequate for Program
  implementation and farmer education
• Picking farmers for adoption of environment
  friendly agricultural practices
• Selecting appropriate technologies/practices for
  pollution control
• Optimizing bio-gas digester design to achieve
  good performance throughout all seasons
• Operating in a setting with poor rural economy
  and weak infrastructure

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Successful Solutions

• Controlling soil erosion
• terracing, contouring, buffer strips, reduces
  tillage, crop rotation
• Reducing the flow of manure and chemicals to
  river waters
• manure storage facilities, bio-gas digesters,
  use of manure as fertilizer and nutrient
  management
• Minimizing the use of pesticides
• laying basis for the development of organic
  farming
• Monitoring river and ground water quality and
  assessing impact of the adopted practices

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2002-2004 Outputs and Impact

• Bio-gas digesters installed at 120 farms
• Manure storage facilities arranged at 310 farms
• Good agricultural practices adopted in 279 farms
• Individual nutrient management plans developed
  for 220 farmers
• Training in good management practices delivered
  to 2500 farmers
• Comprehensive water monitoring program put in
  place for three watersheds
• In three years the Ochkhomuri river water quality
  
• improved significantly to meet EU nitrate
  standard

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Conclusions

• Focusing agricultural research on farmers needs
  and adapting it to the real rural life setting is
  a single window of opportunity for the national
  agricultural knowledge system
• Extension of advanced technologies to the
  subsistence, small and medium farmers is a
  challenging task, taking time and resources for
  demonstrating, carrying out participatory trails
  and building awareness
• Making tangible change in the quality of
  environment proved possible through concentration
  of external and local resources within a focus
  area
• Strong economic incentives are only viable tools
  for sustaining the present positive trend as well
  as for exporting it beyond the pilot area

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Challenges for Scaling up EPC Program

• Agricultural non-point sources of pollution have
  significant impact on water quality at present,
  with a potential to increase in future
• Majority of Georgian farmers do not use
  environment friendly technologies and are unaware
  of damage to public health and environment made
  by their current farming practices
• Georgia lacks adequate environmental regulations
  and economic policies to achieve compliance with
  EU Nitrate and Clean Water Directives

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Strategy for Future

• Facilitate compliance with the obligations of
  EU
• membership
• Develop adequate environmental regulations and
  create economic incentives
• Set up a viable extension system to rejuvenate
  rural economy and develop export opportunities
• Establish a reliable and affordable long-term
  water quality monitoring program
• Seek opportunities for receiving support from
  GEF, EU, MCG, bilateral donors and other sources
  in carrying on the successfully piloted
  activities

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• Thank You