On October 8th, the Georgian Beekeepers Union (GBU) hosted representatives of thirteen VET colleges from across Georgia and sectoral skills organization Agro Duo in Tbilisi. The meeting occasioned the integration of Jara honey production as a topic in VET college beekeeping programmes, something that the Georgian Beekeepers Union have been facilitating over the last year.
The participants received the Jara Honey Production Handbook and Bio Certification Guidelines for Beekeepers; and were introduced to two new websites www.honeyofgeorgia.com and www.jarahoney.com and a honey promotion video Discover Georgia: The Land of the Oldest Honey.
This year Akhali Talga VET College in Kobuleti and Khulo integrated the Jara materials into their one-year beekeeping programme in which twenty-eight beekeeper students are attending. At the meeting, Akhali Talga VET College shared their experience of successfully integrating the Jara materials into their beekeeping programme.
‘I had many calls before and after the meeting and I can say that the interest from the colleges is very high. We will provide support required and I am sure from the next year there will be more programmes with the Jara materials and improved content.’ – Aleko Papava, the Head of the GBU.
At the beginning of the meeting, the GBU and sectoral skills organization Agro Duo signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging to work together to integrate Jara materials into the beekeeping programmes in all VET colleges in Georgia.
Jara is traditional wild beekeeping producing unique and pure honey rarely practiced nowadays, except for remote dwellings located in the subtropical and alpine zone of Georgia. However, for the first time in decades Jara production is being practiced again by new beekeepers or taken up again by those who had stopped. In 2018 the Jara Beekeepers Association was formed to represent producer interest and in the country first, twenty-three Jara beekeepers in Ajara have received Bio certification. Jara honey was commercially harvested and branded for the first time in 2018 and since then the market for Jara honey has grown in strength which is why the producers decided to become Bio Certified to further increase the value of their product. The Jara honey mark was registered this year to further protect this culturally important product.
Heather Briggs, agronomist, agro-consultant on plant productivity, international expert on cheese and journalist visited Tbilisi to hold the training for agro-journalists last week. "Batumelebi" newspaper interviewed her.
For the first time in Georgia a training on agro journalism was conducted for media representatives wishing to report specifically on rural issues and news. The main purpose of the training was to fill knowledge gaps of media practitioners in crops, livestock husbandry and agriculture management and to introduce the basics of agro journalism. Heather Briggs, an international expert and member of British Guild of Agricultural Journalists - was invited to lead a 5 day training from January 26th to February 2nd. About 50 representatives of regional, national broadcasters and printed media participated in the event. The training was organized by the Georgian Regional Media Association and facilitated by the Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme.
By Helen Bradbury: Team Leader, Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme
We are in an interesting conundrum. Gender in most places has been written-in to law. Bar a few notable exceptions, every country in the world, has varying degrees of success in applying universal suffrage. Fifty countries are signed up to the CEDAW convention (the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women). On the CEDAW world map of Discrepant Government Behaviour Concerning Women, the countries shaded dark green which denotes ‘virtually no enforcement of laws consonant with CEDAW or such laws do not even exist’, are where you expect them to be and in fact they are relatively few. It is the next two categories which disturb, covering the vast majority of the globe, the mid and lighter green, where laws are partly or fully consonant with CEDAW but there is little effective enforcement or spotty enforcement of them and the issue is low priority or hit and miss. After the gains, the laws and ratifications of the last centuries it seems that we must tread very carefully indeed for we must counteract indifference, in which inertia and inactivity stop us moving forward.
Government Momentum Builds on Animal Movement Route after the years of discussion and information exchange. The biggest challenge in Georgian sheep sector – the Animal Movement Route issue has come to the point when there is a willingness and concrete plan for taking actions and reaching tangible results.
The Eco Films LTD film The Road, commissioned by ALCP KK, was shown at the BIFED - Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary on October 31, 2014. The documentary was presented in the non-competition section and highly appreciated by the audience.
In October 24th the first flocks of migrating animals went through the newly arranged bypass route in Tsintskaro village, Tetritskaro Municipality. Testing of the new route was carried out successfully - sheep, cattle, horses, donkeys, dogs and shepherds passed on the new road without any difficulties. The movement was monitored by the Tetritskaro Municipality DRR WG members and the Tsintskaro village Rep.
