News

August 13, 2008

Georgian Agriculture At War!

By Sally White, travelling around Georgia

Amidst war, mouths still have to be fed. So in Georgian villages the women are still collecting the fruit even if their men nervously hung around waiting to be recalled to the front lines as reservists for the army. Mercifully the grain harvests are already in, spread out to dry in the yards of the village houses. Uncertainty about the state of the major transport lynchpin, Georgia’s main port, Poti, remains after Russia’s bombing. So there is concern that it may reduce vital imported grain supplies.

As I travelled through the eastern side of Georgia, where the Russians have seen no vital infrastructure to destroy, it would be hard to know a war was going on it. The few give-aways are the coaches waiting to collect the reservists on stand-by, signs showing petrol stations sold out and significantly less traffic on the roads. Only those desperately trying to move children and elderly out of the holiday areas in the war-torn west of Georgia are hurtling through back lanes. Everyone else is...