COMMUNITY-BASED COOPERATION AS AN EFFECTIVE MECHANISM OF THE RECOVERY OF THE HIGLANDS IN GEORGIA
Authors: Koguashvili Paata , Chikhladze Nikoloz 
Published: January 2022

There could be no progress Georgia without strengthening the vitality of rural areas and agriculture. Strength of rural community depends on developing and pursuing sound public policies.
In the thirty-year history of Georgia's independence, there have been made numerous attempts to pursue regional policies aimed at improving the well-being of rural people. Time has shown that each strategy or program designed for this purpose has always been unsystematic and fragmented. As a result, we obtained an almost irreversible process of rural exodus in Georgia, especially in the highland border sector.
These areas of Georgia require highly specific approaches. Local Georgians closest to the origins of Georgian civilization still keep in their daily lives the customs that have existed continuously for many centuries (community-based use and enjoyment of land, partnership, community). The goal of the public support programs designed for them is to create conditions that will naturally encourage people to be there on a permanent-type basis.
We consider it expedient to create special economic entities in the higher altitude regions of the country, to which the revenues generated from pasture lands and forest funds will accumulate. Within the mentioned economic entities, agricultural production should be developed on a cooperative basis, by organizing a single production cycle within cooperatives (production, processing and marketing of primary products).
The owners of these types of economic entities can only be people permanently residing in a certain territory. The revenues from leasing or other agricultural activities can only be spent based on democratic decisions for general purposes to improve the living conditions. Such purposes may include education, healthcare, infrastructure, transport, etc., which will be pre-determined by the Government of Georgia.
When specifying the optimal form of local territorial extent of agricultural cooperatives, priority is given to community-based cooperatives. They will be formed within the administrative units, taking into account the factors of production specialization and concentration of the productive forces. Community-based cooperatives contribute to creating conditions for mass community engagement in the cooperative process, where economies of scale can be used and population’s ability and material resources can be capitalized on the ground, which is of particular importance for inclusive (comprehensive) entrepreneurship development.
There are unique opportunities for organic production in the mountains of Georgia. The basis for the rational use of natural pasture lands in all vertical zones is the introduction of a system of plot-rotational or similar cattle grazing. Increasing the production of all types of food (green, juicy, coarse) on natural pasture lands, improving their quality and reducing the cost is the main basis for livestock development, because 65-75% of the cost of livestock products is related to feed costs.
The organization of a single production cycle within the cooperative (stock feed for livestock, dairy and dairy products (including products produced on the place of origin: “dambalkhacho (a kind of blue cheese), stuffed cheese, sheep cheese), meat and meat products, wool and leather production) will ensure the rational use of grasslands, reduce feed costs and will significantly increase shareholder returns.
In view of the diversity of non-timber forest products in the highlands of Georgia and the rapidly growing demands in international markets, wild-growing fruit picking (dog-rose, crab apple, cornel, sea buckthorn, etc.) within community cooperatives and developing their drying, storage and bio-production and sales at high prices have great potential. Creating a value chain for the production of non-timber forest products in Georgia would be ensured through supporting the strengthening of the organizational and technical-technological capabilities of the community-based cooperatives.
The above model of the Highland Caucasus can be extended to all communities and villages after defining the status of village and rural entrepreneur (village as a territorial unit/vital area), which implies the transfer of the permanent ownership and use of state-owned land, forest, pasture, water and mineral resources to the communities.
If this model is properly organized, the most complex military-political, economic and demographic problems related to the highland border sectors will be addressed without an additional financial cost to the State and changes in the internal territorial arrangement of the country. The people who live here will simultaneously act as guardians, border guards and farmers of the country.
One of the primary objectives of State policy should be to encourage care and support of people living in rural areas, as well as to give them incentives to work (strengthening the authority of farming) in order to feed society.