On April 7-12, 2019, in Batumi, Hotel “ Inturist” The 9th International Conference of Black and Caspian Seas and Central Asian countries ( BACSA) was held. The topic of the Conference was: Sericulture preservation and revival – problems and prospects “. BACSA – International Silk producers’ Association was founded in 2005 and there were 9 countries besides Georgia. Today this Association unites 20 countries which work successfully in their countries to develop sericulture.
Sericulture is a very complex field of agriculture and it unites the following: growing mulberry trees, production of silk egg, feeding of the silkworm, first processing of the cocoon, keeping and trading of the cocoon, to name a few. Therefore, sericulture involves a series of complex activities which is directed towards cocoon production.
The countries which BACSA unites today face some serious problems. For example, China and partially India which approximately produce 82% of whole world silk production today - occupy silk production market. Half of goods these countries produce for domestic consumption, but 50% percent goes to the world market. Therefore, BACSA was founded to address this problem and help other countries to develop sericulture and find their place in the market.
Georgia is among those countries which needs support in revival of the field which was a good source of additional income for the local farmers and villagers.
The Conference organizer together with BACSA was Georgian Academy of Agricultural Sciences which carried out a significant work to make this conference successful.
The following countries participated in International Conference: Georgia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Turkey, Poland, Italy, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Also, invited guests from China and India. A special representative of UN – working on the problems of sericulture doctor Deelip Kumar ( India) took active part in conference work.
The conference was greeted by Mr. Tite Aroshidze, the Minister of Agriculture of Ajara Region, and the President of GAAS Academician Guram Aleksidze.
The Panel presentation of Panomir Tsenov, the Presodent of BACSA, dealt with the most urgent problems of sericulture in the abovementioned countries, he also spoke about the present status of sericulture in the world and the tendency of its further development, described some difficulties existed in sericulture, production and trading silk goods, also the report included some successful examples of development of the branch in close cooperation with international organizations. BACSA fundamental principles of cooperation in the sphere of science, technology, training and exchange of experience have been stressed out.
46 articles were presented out of which 8 were panel presentations. Academician Elguja Shapakidze made a presentation about Georgian sericulture and its present state of development, future perspectives and focused on the projects designed by Georgian Government together with Ajara Ministry of Agriculture for revival and promotion of sericulture in Georgia.
On the plenary session, presentation on “Silk in Georgian Culture and Religion: Its past and present” was made by Dr. Prof. Irina Bakhtadze, representative of GAAS. Her article raise interest among the scholars and was approved by Conference participants.
The discussions around the future perspectives of BACSA was one of the focal points of the Conference and it addressed a wide range of problems including the role of organic sericulture in biological agriculture, some valuable recommendations have been worked out for development of organic silk production and perspectives of development of world sericulture, also talked about BACSA regional cooperation mission.
The huge efforts made by Ajara Ministry of Agriculture staff members who supported successful development of the Conference should be particularly stressed out because the event has been very important for revival and promotion of Georgian sericulture in future.
