On October 13, 2016, in Paris, at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which was founded in 1761, the 9^th General Assembly of European Academies of Agricultural Sciences was held. The Assembly discussed the problem: ”Agrarian Science: Historical Aspects and Perspectives”. The participants were the specialists and researchers from different European countries, such as, France, Portugal,  Check Republic, Rumania, Italy,  England, Livonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Georgia and other.

  The representative from Georgia was acad. G. Aleksidze. General Assembly was opened by the president of Check Academy, who talked about the activities which took place since the 8^th Assembly in Prague and the Conference held in Kiev.

 The Assembly elected new President for 2017, also the members of Staring Committee and observant, the representative of which, together with France and Check rep., will also, be G. Aleksidze.

 The General assembly considered the presentations which dealt with climate change and its effect on forest ecosystem and food production in Britain. ( D. Gardner) Also, the problem of physical mutagens were discussed, which should find its place in the European regulations and the documentation will be prepared by French Academies of Agriculture and Technologies.

   The second Day was dedicated to the participants of Colloquium on which 10 presentations were discussed by the representatives of different EU countries.

The third day of the Assembly was dedicated to scientific tour to Champaign where the Assembly participants were acquainted with the bio technological methods of getting bio fuel with appliance of sugar beetroot, wheat and other plant materials; also the participants were given wonderful opportunity to observe technological process of Champaign wine production.  They visited the famous wine cellar “ Marteli” and tested the Champaign wines kept there.

 The 10^th Session will be held in 2018 in Florence, Italy.

Ganja ( Azerbaijan) the 8^th Scientific- practical Conference.  

On October 3-4, 2016, in town Ganja, at  Azerbaijan Agricultural University, an International Conference was held on the following topic: ”International cooperation for the development of agrarian sciences, food safety and environmental protection.”

The aim of the Conference was to share the experience of different countries, looking out for the ways to solve the global ecological and food safety problems, and to involve lecturers and students in discussion and management of these problems.

The representatives of 18 countries, from the former Soviet Union, as well as from Moldova, Poland, Germany, Rumania, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, and other countries took part in the conference. Georgian delegation was presented with 8 participants, including I. Nozadze, Deputy Minister, S. Beridze, Ministry of agriculture of Adjara, also representatives of Gory University,  Agriculture Scientific Center and the GAAS.

The Conference worked in four field sessions:  

-          Agronomy and agro-engineering;

-          Veterinary and zoo-engineering;

-          Engineering, Electro-engineering and informational technologies;

-          Economy, agro-business and management of aggriculture.

On the first day of the Conference, the plenary meeting was held at the conference hall named after Heidar Aliev.

Japarov, the Rector of the Agrarian University of Azerbaijan, greeted the conference participants. Also the speeches were delivered by the representatives of scientific and non-governmental organizations from of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Thailand, and Germany who talked about their spheres of activities and round the conference issues. M. Balavadze, Georgian Ambassador in Azerbaijan attended the opening ceremony. Georgian researchers presented the results of their studies in Veterinary and zoo- engineering session.

Marina Barvenashvili, a  member of GAAS, greeted the Conference participants and delivered her paper together with her colleague, M. Peikrishvili on: “Production of ecologically pure honey and its by-products in Georgia” which obviously raised a wide interest and  was followed by discussion.

The Conference proceedings were published in a two-volume addition.

The Conference participants visited many interesting historical places in the vicinity of the town Ganja, including agricultural sites and green-houses. 

On Oct. 4, the closing ceremony was directed by the University Rector I. Jafarov, who gave a high evaluation to the papers delivered by Conference participants that will help to manage the existed problems in agriculture successfully.  

On September 28,29,30, 2016,  Georgian Academy of Agricultural Sciences hosted an International Scientific Conference on: Modern Technologies to Produce Ecologically Pure Products for Sustainable Development of Agriculture.  (The Conference was financially supported by Georgian Shota Rustaveli National Foundation.)

The aim of the Conference was to discuss and evaluate the role of production of ecologically pure products and the utilization of resource-saving technologies which will be one of the bases of the further success of economy and further development of agriculture in Georgia. Also, the goal of the Conference is to provide opportunity for the young researchers to present the results of their work and plan cooperation  with experienced scientists on prospected projects.

Together with Georgian researchers, the representatives from different countries, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Russia (including South Ossetia), Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbek  and Turkey took part in the Conference. 

The presentations were made in three different field sections:

1. 1.Modern technologies of production of ecologically pure plant products;
2. 2.Modern technologies of production of ecologically pure livestock products;
3. 3.

During the opening ceremony of the Conference, the president of the GAAS, Academician Guram Aleksidze welcomed the participants and guests of the Conference. Welcoming speeches were delivered by the Minister of Agriculture Levan Davitashvili, Deputy Minister Iuri Nozadze, Deputy of the Minister of Education and Science Tamaz Marsagishvili, the Deputy of General Director of Shota Rustaveli National Scientific Foundation Tinatin Bochorishvili,  Academic Board Secretary of Georgian Technical University Giorgi Surguladze. The representatives of foreign delegations  thanked to the host organization and wished to the participants fruitful work in the framework of the Conference.

Conference program and collection of scientific articles, full texts ( Total number of articles – 176. out of which 47 belong to foreign and 129 to Georgian researchers) were published and distributed among the participants. Active part in the work of the Conference also took master and doctorate program students from different institutions.

The opening of the Conference was also accompanied by Exhibition - fair of ecologically pure products; The representatives of agrarian scientific-research centers, firms and small businesses took part who presented their product, namely honey, cheese, fruit and vegetables, wine and non-alcoholic beverages, also tinned fruit and vegetables, dry and frozen fruit.

Children with disabilities (the head Maia Asakashvili) also presented different souvenirs produced by the members of Association of Children with Disabilities.

The hosts of the Conference offered interesting and informative excursions to the participants. They visited Georgian Ethnographic Museum, Experimental base in a village of Jighaura of the Agricultural Research Center, also spend a wonderful time in Kakheti, Wine Cellar of Sulkhan Gulashvili.

 On the third day, a closing ceremony was held and the Conference adopted “Declaration -2016”.  All participants got the Certificates of the Conference.

In the result of the problems discussed at the Conference, awareness regarding the significance of production of eco-products will be raised, also young farmers who have just started bio farms will be more motivated to maximize their production and compete with the product introduced from other countries.

The Conference will hopefully assist to the government to work out a special program which will promote eco production in the country. It will provide additional motivation for farmers to save bio-chemistry of soil and and produce organic products. We believe that bio-production could become a market niche for Georgian farmers on the world economic market.

On September 21, 2014, the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences and Engineering of Bio-Systems was opened. Georgian Government invested in this project more than 12 million lari.

The Faculty received the first students in 2014-2015. The students are provided with modern technologies and all necessary facilities to carry out researches and study. A new building was opened by a Deputy Minister of Education and Science A. Jejelava together with the professors and staff members.

 Within the framework of the Tbilisi Festival of Science and Innovations, one of the most important events, named “The Day of Agrarian Science” was held. It lasted five days and embraced a series of activities, such as, public lectures, seminars and training sessions. On the 26^th of September the Fest was officially closed.

The Faculty of of Agrarian Sciences and Bio-Systems Engineering founded on the base of Georgian Technical University has the most updated technologies and its door is open not only to its students, but also to the researchers working in agrarian field. The Faculty offers to the students eight educational programs, namely in: Cattle breeding, Agronomy, Engineering of soil and water resources, Management of Agribusiness, Food Technologies, Forestry, Agro-engineering. Out of those 8 programs, 7 – is fully financed by the Government.

Within the the framework of the Festival, a scientific Conference on: Georgian Genetic Resources and innovative Technologies for its development” was held organized by GAAS and Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia. During the opening ceremony of the Conference, many prominent Georgian and Foreign representatives of agrarian sciences, as well as government representatives addressed the Conference participants and wished them fruitful work.

 The scientific presentations were rather interesting and embraced different fields of agriculture which will assist to further development of agrarian sciences in Georgia.