Georgia – country with limited reserves of land

Currently, Georgians are speculating much about the problems with regard to land ownership. Most Georgian farmers complain and protest the fact that Georgian lands are being sold to foreigners, which causes problems to local farmers. They say they are deprived of pastures to feed their cattle, as well as agricultural lands, where they can cultivate. During the Soviet Union, the land belonged to the state, but after the Soviet Union’s collapse, one of the reforms considered distributing lands to farmers free of charge. As a result of this distribution, plots of land were divided into small segments which created problems for their cultivation. Mikheil Saakashvili’s Rose administration found “solution” by encouraging foreigners to buy land from Georgian farmers at a low cost. Local prices on land differed very much from the international prices and farmers were in such need of cash money that they could not afford machinery, fertilizers and other tools to cultivate their lands. Therefore, selling land was the best option to get “easy money.” All these irresponsible steps carried out by non-professionals resulted in serious problems which Georgia’s current administration now has to solve.