Information activity in the agricultural sector in Georgia has, after a 10-year interruption, just begun to reconstruct with the assistance of FAO and a number of other international organizations. So far no significant research results in the field of agro-information are as yet available.

Agriculture and food industry in Georgia have been having hard times, just as has entire Georgian economy. The market of highly specialized tea, wine and citrus production, what was determined by climatic conditions in Georgia, was guaranteed in the vast and relatively closed USSR. When the market in former USSR opened up to the imported products following the break up of the USSR, this has had detrimental effects in Georgia. Nevertheless agricultural production in Georgia is recovering at a much quicker pace than industry. In 1997 the agricultural output reached 75% of the 1990 level. Concurrently, its structure is being changed quite drastically.

A network of research and training centers is available in the country to insure research support for the agrarian sector. The network used to be, and still is, a generator of intellectual productivity in agriculture and food industry. In the 70s and 80s a flow of publications related to agro-information accounted for more than 5% of all scientific publications in Georgia, what was over 500 units per annum. These included monographs, articles, patent specifications, reports, and dissertations. In the 90s the quantity of these same publications fell by 10 times at least.

The number of research institutions is still the same, but in the absence of state funding as well as requests on the part of the agrarian sector, the work intensity has declined followed by reduction in the number of employees. This could not but affect information activity at those institutions that maintain scientific and technical information departments and libraries. Some of these institutions sustain patent departments as well. Now the libraries are no longer supplied with documents as they have no financial means. Information demand has dropped as there is no research. As a result, information divisions have suffered the most through the staff reduction policy at those institutions.

However, the decline in the interest for scientific information is being accompanied with the advent of information needs among the newly emerging small producers in the agrarian sector. This demand by farmers and small-processing enterprises lies in the area of practical technological and business/market information. The former network of information departments is nevertheless not adapted to meet the information needs of such small-scale agricultural production. Meeting of such demand will require creation of a network of advisors in the Georgian provinces. They will need to have access to intellectual products of the network of Georgian research centers as well as access to the global information. Preparatory work for creating such network has been initiated within the framework of TACIS, WB and FAO programs.