The Agrarian Issues Committee, along with the partner organizations, officially closed the competition called for the Bachelor’s and Master’s students within the Rural Entrepreneurship Development program.

At the ceremony in the Iota Hotel, the Chair of the Agrarian Committee, Nino Tsilosani, Dutch Ambassador, H.E. Maaike van Koldam, and the CENN Executive Director, Nana Janashia addressed the attendees. The ceremony was as well attended by the First Deputy Chair of the Agrarian Committee, Gela Samkharauli.

The partner parties concluded the Memorandum of Cooperation on September 13 and the process has been implemented in three stages.

The students were allowed to get cognizant of the creation and piloting of the family, private, community, municipal, regional or national models of the utilization of the forest non-timber resources, sustainable development goals, rural development strategies; to attend the training on rural entrepreneurship; find the beneficiaries and develop the business plan concepts adjusted to the ongoing startup programs and grants; cooperate with the state and international organizations etc.

Within the project, 12 candidates have been selected for the 3-day training at the II stage (November 1-3) in the “Green Center” in Bulachauri.

The next stage envisaged the development and submission of the concepts for the business plans in cooperation with the partners and beneficiaries. 8 best works have been selected for the final stage, which were presented today. The jury revealed the authors of the 3 best concepts and awarded them with the prizes and bonuses – 1500 GEL.

“The program held with the support of the CENN aimed at the engagement of the students in the agrarian sphere and sharing their positions to reveal the best ideas for converting the forest non-timber resources into the commercial purpose. The program implied the engagement of the Bachelor’s and Master’s students from the partner universities, development of the business projects by them, training, meetings with the successful businessmen etc. I would like to thank our friends, the Dutch Embassy and CENN”, - N. Tsilosani stated.

According to her, the outcomes of the program exceeded the expectations.

“With the initiative of the Committee, we wanted to raise the interest in more youth for engagement in rural development. The forest non-timber resources are the new opportunities granted under the Forest Code allowing the rural bio-production and hence, we wanted to reveal the best ideas of the youth”, - she added.


She thanked the participants of the process, parties engaged, partner organizations, agencies, experts, trainers and hoped for further cooperation on more interesting projects and programs.

The Program is held with the engagement of the Agrarian Committee, Dutch Embassy, CENN and Association “Georgian Forest Product”.