Raising awareness and promoting agricultural and environmental education

The final meeting of the project, "Promoting agricultural and environmental education and raising awareness," was held by theEIEC of the Ministry of EnvironmentAL Protection and Agriculture of Georgia.

The meeting was opened by the Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Solomon Pavliashvili; the Deputy Head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Georgia, Anna Chernishova; and the Head of the Economic Development Program of the Swiss Cooperation Office in the South Caucasus, Beka Tagauri.

"One of the priorities of the centre is the development of professional education in the agriculture field. Programs including extension, climate-smart agriculture, forest inventory, and taxes have all been established by the EIEC.

As part of the project, a supporting manual on climate-smart agriculture was created for students in professional and higher education levels. It was adapted for Georgia and took into account the actual issues that are seen under the conditions of climate change.. In general, the centre has taken important steps in the field of increasing extension opportunities, in order to provide farmers with information, as well as to help them get quality education, "said Solomon Pavliashvili.

Together with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and the EIEC, we implemented a project that serves to introduce environmental education in vocational educational colleges. Through this program, farmers will have a better understanding of what they should contribute to climate change and what kind of impact climate change may have on them. This project is very important and I hope that this process will continue, become even more stable, sustainable, and systematically introduced in Georgia to promote professional development, "said Anna Chernyshova, Deputy Head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Georgia.

At the summary meeting, the participants got acquainted with the electronic platforms created and updated within the framework of the project to improve extension services, which help farmers to share information and experience and provide timely consultations. Also, they received information about training programs developed within the project in the fields of climate-smart agriculture and extension. Introductory meetings have already been held in professional colleges and universities about the mentioned programs for their implementation. The Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) and the Information Quality Standard in the field of agriculture were developed within the project. A knowledge and innovation system in agriculture helps people and institutions involved in agriculture to innovate, gain information, and deal with challenges.

Activities to promote agricultural and environmental education and raise awareness within the project "Modernization of Vocational Education Related to Agriculture in Georgia (Phase 2)" were carried out by the EIEC with the financial assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Swiss Cooperation Office (SDC). The goal of the project was to strengthen the institutional capacity of the EIEC of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, promote agricultural education and strengthen the mechanisms of training and retraining in the field of agriculture.