Major objective of the National Extension Forum, held in Tbilisi, on February 22-24, was to support the Ministry of Agriculture in planning of extension and advisory service policy and strategy. In his opening speech, Javier SanzAlvarez, FAO Coordination Support Officer, underscored the contribution of FAO in strengthening extension and advisory service, as the key pillar of a well-functioning support to the agricultural and rural development sectors in Georgia.

’’Intense work of technical assistance has been done by FAOto support the ministry of agriculture within the ENPARD programme financed by the European Union. One of the milestones of this work is the Extension Strategy, that has been produced and that will become the framework for the future development of extension services in Georgian. The implementation of this Extension strategy will help the Ministry of Agriculture to better support farmers in Georgian villages,” SanzAlvarez noted.

At the forum session, Lasha Dolidze, National Project Manager of FAO introduced the details of the Extension Strategy which aims to improve the competitiveness of agriculture by supporting the farmers in Georgia.

National Extension Forum, organized under the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia and the USAID funded project ,,Strengthening Extension and Advisory Services in Georgia " (SEAS), brought together all the stakeholders, including government, non-governmental and international organizations to move forward the issues related to the development of extension service in Georgia.