Agriculture in Georgia (country)

[1] In the Soviet period, swampy areas in the west were drained and arid regions in the east were salvaged by a complex irrigation system, allowing Georgian agriculture to expand production tenfold between 1918 and 1980.

[1] However, production was hindered in the Soviet period by the misallocation of agricultural land, such as the assignment of prime grain fields to tea cultivation and excessive specialization.

[1] Animal husbandry, mainly the keeping of cattle, pigs, and sheep, accounts for about 25 percent of Georgia's agricultural output, although high density and low mechanization have hindered efficiency.

[1] Failure to balance these relationships contributed to Georgia's food crises in the early 1990s during the Soviet Union's collapse.

[1] When Georgia became independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, the entire country was in total disarray, facing a bitter civil war.

Georgian agriculture collapsed, and the land held by large collective farms was quickly distributed to rural households in an attempt to avoid famine.

[7] Even under Soviet rule, Georgia had a vigorous private agricultural sector,[1] producing crops and livestock on small plots allocated to rural residents and town dwellers in the life estate fashion.

[1] As was the case with enterprise privatization, President Gamsakhurdia postponed systematic land reform because he feared that local mafias would dominate the redistribution process.

[1] Limitations were placed on what the new "owners" could do with their land, and would-be private farmers faced serious problems in obtaining seeds, fertilizer, and equipment.

However, most of them had returned to India as they faced numerous problems in marketing their harvests and being repeatedly refused residence permit appeals.