To promote agricultural sector and agrarian education, to raise awareness about the different agricultural sectors, to create a qualified mechanism for the professional knowledge evaluation and indorse informal education in agriculture, FAO, the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the Agriculture Development Association joined forces to developed the unique concept of the first ever National Agricultural Olympiad. Launch of the Olympiad was officially announced by Mr. Levan Davitashvili, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia.

“To motivate people interested in agriculture and to provide evaluation mechanism of their knowledge, under the patronage of the ministry, the first National Agricultural Olympiad is making a start. I do believe that this initiative will become a popular event and, even more, an annual competition in Georgia. It is noteworthy that the Agricultural Olympiad will be the best platform for the people employed or just interested in the agricultural sector to demonstrate their knowledge. The Olympiad tests have been developed by the experts and professionals in the field. Respectively, the Olympiad will play an important role in the agricultural education and in the popularization of the agricultural sector in general,’’ Mr. Davitashvili said.

As Mamuka Meskhi, Assistant FAO Representative noted at the opening event, the contest is now open and welcomes all the interested parties – schoolchildren, students, agronomists, farmers, professionals and those with informal education – to test their knowledge and obtain the status of the winners.

“We have created a possibility for all people interested in the agricultural sector to participate in the contest, introduce themselves to the employers and discover more opportunities for developing their agricultural businesses’’, Mr. Meskhi said.

The Olympiad will be held in three phases. The first one is the registration of the participants; at the second stage, the participants will have to take an online test in one of the agricultural fields – agronomy, veterinary, wine-making technology, agricultural mechanization, food technology, forestry, viticulture, fruit growing, vegetable growing or organic farming. Schoolchildren will be able to pass the tests in environmental protection, beekeeping, vegetable growing, fruit growing or animal husbandry. At the third stage, the top scorers will take final tests and the winners will be revealed.

Target audience of the Olympiad is broad - from the professionals with higher or vocational education in the agricultural sector, farmers who are engaged in the agricultural activity and have relevant knowledge and experience as a result of a long-term practice, to the students from universities and vocational colleges with agricultural profile,  and the students of public and private high schools of the age of 14-18.

Three winners (I position, II position, III position) will be identified from each category – farmer, student, pupil and practitioner. The winners of the Olympiad will be awarded with certificates and prizes.

The ‘’National Agricultural Olympiad is the novelty not only for Georgia, but it is quite unique for EU countries as well. We expect that the Olympiad will raise interest of more and more people and will motivate them to be interested in agriculture”, Mr. Alexander Karner, the head of the Tbilisi Office of the Austrian Development Cooperation stated. He noted that the long-term strategic goal of the Olympiad is to roll out at the regional level.

The National Agricultural Olympiad is supported  by the USAID Agriculture Project, Green Economy: Sustainable Mountain Tourism & Organic Agriculture (GRETA), Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN) and Environmental Information and Education Center (EIEC).