Posted by Helen Bradbury: Team Leader, Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme
Rural farmers can only grow their income when they have access to the drugs and veterinary services to keep their animals healthy and growing too. Alliances has partnered with a national veterinary inputs supply company to improve access to drugs, information and vet services for poor farmers in rural Georgia. There are strong signs competitors are seeking to replicate the model, which is also scaling up nationally and in neighbouring countries.
The challenge
Over 2 million people in rural Georgia rely on subsistence farming, typically owning less than one hectare of land. SDC has been funding a series of programmes in Southern Georgia since 2008 to improve the livelihoods of livestock farmers.
During initial surveys, Alliances learned that less than 10 per cent of farmers were accessing veterinary drugs or services in their community, in rural vet pharmacies mainly self-stocked from trips to Tbilisi. Others bought drugs when travelling to the capital. In the rural vet pharmacies a limited range of often improperly stored drugs were sold at high prices due to the resultant transaction costs. Local advice was minimal, unavailable or out of date. This had led to a lack of farmer trust in local veterinary products and services and unwillingness to invest.
Suppliers had failed to grasp the market potential of developing rural distribution, lacking both the information and capital to do so. The uncertainty about whether farmers would buy their products meant the perceived risk held suppliers back from making the first move.
Delivering drugs and services to rural farmers
Alliances’ vision was for farmers to have access to a broad range of quality medicines at a competitive price with advice to go with it. The means to achieve this was for drug manufacturers to invest in improved distribution systems to pharmacies in towns and villages. This included setting up new village-based pharmacies and providing additional training for pharmacists so they could deal with common livestock illnesses and diseases, local veterinarians and farmers to develop the market. This improvement in access and service quality would improve productivity for farmers, increase sales for drug companies, and enable them to self-finance further growth and expansion.
Intervention development and learning
Alliances decided to partner with Roki Ltd. because it was working with more pharmacies than other manufacturers, Roki was also investing in local production of generic medicines of its own, producing 40 per cent of their medicines within Georgia, and provided some limited trainings for vets, pharmacists and farmers. Roki’s vision was aligned with Alliances: it felt that its future development depended on improved management of its distribution systems, customer relations and pharmacist capacity.
Most importantly, however, they were the right people. The chemistry was right, ideas flowed, and they had a strong social ethos towards farmers which aligned with the programme.
Alliances were able to use its market research to demonstrate a large market for drugs amongst farmers in rural regions. The Alliances co-investment equipped the vet pharmacies whilst the company invested in drug distribution. Specifically Roki supported high potential pharmacies with wholesale rates for drugs, advertising for vet products an expanded set of trainings and a hotline service for vets and pharmacists.
Women’s economic empowerment was core to programme strategy, with gender disaggregated research data and training and advertising designed to reach women, however early results showed that the majority of the customers reached by these pharmacies were male. To respond, Alliances worked with Roki to create a new model of satellite veterinary pharmacies. These were closer to villages and accessible by women who rarely travel to town centres.
Drugs and services for 70,000 farmers
With support from Alliances, Roki has facilitated the opening of 44 new pharmacies, leading to increased access to veterinary drugs and services for over 70,000 farmers. Roki has expanded the model to include 284 further veterinary pharmacies in other parts of Georgia, and 11 other vet pharmacies have copied the model, resulting in over 250,000 Georgian farmers having access to veterinary services.
In Georgia, a key competitor in the supply of vet drugs is starting to replicate the business model, by importing identical medicines, creating an identical distribution chain and offering training to its pharmacies. In Azerbaijan Roki has partnered with Real Vet a company with outreach to 350 vet pharmacies. Drugs are being exported to Armenia and Turkmenistan. Roki now produces 70 per cent of its own medicines at its now HACCP and ISO compliant factory in Tbilisi and has become a founder member and advocate in industry related fora in an increasingly burgeoning sector.
Georgian Honey under Nena brand has successfully entered the Hong Kong market with a repeat order received soon after the first one. Hong Kong is the new market for Nena honey following USA, Canada, Japan and UAE.
Three Georgian honey producers received Silver Quality Award in the quality category at the London International Honey Awards. These companies were supported by the Embassy of Georgia to the UK and the Georgian Beekeepers Union (GBU) to participate in this prestigious competition in London for the first time among 290 honeys from 20 countries.
The purpose of the LONDON HONEY AWARDScompetitions is to inform honey-growers, honey producers, beekeepers, processors, and retailers, who distribute their standardized products legally, to preserve and to ameliorate the quality of their branded product by promoting high-quality honey products in every aspect of the spectrum of its use and consumption.
The awarded Georgian honey producers are Nena Chestnut Honey / KTW, Nena Jara Bio Honey / KTW, Ninotsminda Honey (Alpine) / Cooperative KODY and Chestnut Honey / Rukhi Queen
You can see here the post of the embassy on Facebook.
On May 27th-28th, more than two thousand beekeepers in all regions of Georgia attended a training on bee treatment practices as a response to the massive bee colonies collapse this year. The Georgian Beekeepers Union (GBU) initiated and advocated the first nationwide trainings with the Rural Development Agency (RDA) based on the online research data gathered. The GBU developed a trainer’s handbook and Varroa Treatment guideline, which was translated and available for Azerbaijani and Armenian beekeepers; and delivered a Training of Trainers for eighty-five beekeepers.
‘Beekeepers received important information about new methodology how to treat Varroa. This was the first training organized in coordination with the GBU, which is the main actor in the beekeeping sector and our collaboration will continue.’ – Lasha Shalamberidze, the Head of the Regional Relations Department at the RDA.
‘I think, a key outcome of these trainings is that our Union expanded its team across Georgia. We now have the representatives in each municipality and we will continue teaching and delivering important information to the beekeepers.’ – Aleko Papava, the Head of the GBU.
A seventh Veterinary Surveillance Point (VSP) of the National Food Agency (NFA) opened recently in Dusheti municipality to serve nomadic farmers migrating on the north part of the Animal Movement Route of Georgia. This is the first and the only VSP in Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, where disinfection of sheep and cattle against ecto-parasites is provided by the State. Up to 100,000 head of sheep will be dipped there during every transhumance season, free of charge.
The point was constructed by the NFA following the petition of shepherds from the region at the ALCP’s 11th Advisory Committee meeting and was approved by the Minister of Environmental Protection & Agriculture – Levan Davitashvili in March 2019, based on the positive benefits of the existing points.
In 2015 the VSP model was created by the ALCP commissioned British livestock expert Edward Hamer and an MOU was signed between the Ministry of Agriculture, the NFA and the ALCP to construct six VSPs, two of them were financed by the programme and four by the State. In 2016-2018 all six points were finalized and opened. This year additional water points were also opened on the route. The VSP’s record and monitor the nomadic sheep and cattle population and underpin Georgia’s credibility in livestock export markets.
As Dick Whittington found out the London streets are not literally paved with gold. However four Georgian honey companies are participating in a celebration of the liquid kind. The London International Honey Awards held from May 30-31st, have two main award categories: quality and design, and feature honeys from all over the world, from Canada to the Mediterranean to New Zealand and everything in between. Competition is fierce. The four Georgian honey companies, Nena, Rukhi Queen, Honey and Irinola Company and Cooperative Kodi, were supported to participate by the Embassy of Georgia to the UK and the Georgian Beekeepers Union (GBU).
On May 18th-19th, twelve VET college representatives from seven regions of Georgia attended a Training of Trainers in Jara Honey Production hosted by the Georgian Beekeepers Union (GBU) and the Jara Beekeepers Association (JBA) in Keda, Medzibna Village.
The trainees learnt how to teach beekeeping students Jara honey production and how to obtain Bio certification. They also visited a Bio certified Jara apiary and the Agro-Keda factory to see the process of Jara honey processing and packaging.
Akhali Talga VET College in Kobuleti and Khulo, who have already integrated the Jara teaching materials into their one-year beekeeping programme since October 2020, also shared their experience of including and teaching Jara production.
‘I am happy to attend this training, as I learned a lot. I am ready to teach Jara beekeeping to my students, because it will make our beekeeping programme even more interesting.’ – Ilia Khazarishvili, a lecturer at the Public College Aisi, Kakheti.
‘I am glad that all of the colleges now acknowledge that Jara teaching is an essential part of Georgian beekeeping programmes. During these two days they heard about a wide range of Jara topics, for example, Bio certification, which was impressive for them. Now they are convinced that Jara teaching has a future and this will help them to attract more students to beekeeping. They also saw the demand from businesses after visiting two Jara honey processing entities.’ - Aleko Papava, the Head of the GBU.
The National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement and sectoral skills organization Agro Duo are supporting Jara teaching integration in the VET colleges.
On June 1st, the GBU is organizing an online event Highlights So Far: Jara in VET, which is bringing together VET colleges, specialists, agro journalists, donors, and public officials to further promote Jara teaching in VET colleges and share reflections on the training.
