Georgian Farmers' Association

In Georgia there are few industry-specific associations that work on specific problems, informing relevant government agencies and playing a role in policy change and improvements. Lobbying without such mechanisms is often useless and unproductive. This situation led to the creation of the NNLE Georgian Farmers’ Association (GFA) in 2012.

GFA unites 3,900 farmers in Georgia, and establishes its value to members by giving guidance on governmental programs, links to service providers and sources of funding, markets and technical support, consultation on policy issues and representation of members’ interests, defense of smallholder farmers’ rights, participation in policy making, and advocacy of fair access to markets and resources. GFA’s Call Center provides farmers and stakeholders with useful information and helps to analyse current issues in agriculture.

GFA actively cooperates with governmental, donor and educational institutions, and is a strong coordinator between farmers and all actors involved in agriculture. GFA mission is to bring Georgia forward, and as an organization, it is well aware of the fact that farmers need to make a shift from being “peasants” to entrepreneurs.

GFA ensures the connection between its members and GFDC, whose mission is to create a sophisticated, simple and continuous supply chain. The company’s mission is to support Georgian farmers in realization their products and to find a new and permanent market for them. Georgian Farmers’ Distribution Company’s aim is to strengthen local farming organizations and to replace import with the local products.

In addition to lobbying for farmers’ interests and other advocacy activities, in December 2016, the Board of Directors of GFA decided to form a Farmers’ Council, with enough power to take part in the process of making policies, dealing with issues of development in agriculture, and improvement of the state of Georgian farmers.