Aligned amelioration infrastructure significantly develops agricultural sector
"Rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage infrastructure intensively continues. As a result, meliorated land area in the country exceeds 200,000 hectares," - Otar Shamugia, the Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia mentioned, addressing the Parliament in a "Minister Hour" format. As the Minister noted, water supplied area has increased from 45,000 to 160,000 hectares, while drained land area has increased from 14,000 up to 43,000 hectares. New pumping stations have been commissioned. Outdated and depreciated amelioration infrastructure still remains a major challenge.
"With the assistance of our partner donor organizations and budget funding, large-scale amelioration projects are currently underway and planned for rehabilitation of both irrigation infrastructure and drainage schemes, facilitating us to make tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land area intensively used in agriculture, rehabilitate the existing irrigation reservoirs and construct new ones, improve water management. For implementation of large-scale investments in irrigation and drainage sector we are actively cooperating with our partner international organizations and financial institutions, such as the World Bank, European Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, French Development Agency. The aim of the cooperation is not only repair-modernization of amelioration schemes, but also implementation of institutional reforms in the field, enhancement of customer-oriented services, introduction of world-approved mechanisms of effective and transparent management, including decentralization through establishing water user organizations and activating the role of farmers”-Otar Shamugia mentioned.
