Young Farmers Centers in Tetritskaro Municipality

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Into the framework of European Union supported project in Tetritskaro municipality, establishment of Young Farmers Centers (YFC) has begun. Currently, YFCs are in Bogvi, Samgereti, Khaishi and Tetritskaro #2 schools.

The Young Famers Centers (YFC) is an approach of RDFG, that bring together school children from rural communities to demonstrate the benefits of modern agriculture as a source of livelihood security in their local communities and an alternative to migration to urban areas. YFC teaches advocacy, civic participation, leadership skills and agricultural innovation, so youth can revitalize their communities’ civic and economic future.

At the beginning, Rural Development Project team conducted the meetings with Tetritskaro youth to introduce the concept of Young Farmers Centers. Lots of students got interested in joining YFCs and subsequently, there are 153 members in four centers. Next step was additional meetings at each school, that aimed revealing local community problems and preparing students for future activities and team building.

“Forming process of Young Farmers Centers is going successfully, children are very enthusiastic. At the end of the project, there will be 18 active centers in the municipality and we hope, that students will be involved in YFC activities very actively and continue looking after their community and environment” – Mentioned Aslan Artmeladze, Project liaison officer.

In the future months, project team plans to establish Young Farmers Centers in other schools of Tetritskaro municipality and conducting targeted trainings with children about farming, communication and leadership.

RDFG implements “Rural Development for Sustainable Growth of Tetritskaro Municipality” project in the framework of the second phase of European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development – ENPARD.

ENPARD II uses a LEADER approach to economic development. Fundamentally, it is the energy and resources of the local people that contribute to the rural development process by forming partnerships at a sub-regional level between the public, private and civil sectors. The LEADER approach is associated with local empowerment through local strategy development and resource allocation. The main tool for the application of the LEADER approach to area development and involving local representatives in decision-making is the Local Action Group (LAG).

The project partners are Agro-Technology Association (ATA), Lithuanian Local Action Groups Network and the Ministry of Agriculture of Lithuania.