This report was produced by a private consultant Alexander Gvaramia a legal expert on land laws and issues and a member of the Swiss Development Cooperation funded Mercy Corps Georgia implemented Alliances Kvemo Kartli Programme, Helen Bradbury, a market development programme working in the dairy, beef and sheep value chains in Dmanisi, Tetritskaro and Tsalka municipalities of Kevmo Kartli. The International Centre for Conflict Negotiation (ICCN) a partner of Alliances KK was responsible for facilitating the concept and production of the report.

Smallholder farmers in Georgia face multiple challenges, including low productivity and poor access to the inputs and capacities that they need. Oxfam and its partners are implementing a programme that aims to increase agricultural productivity and support the competitiveness of smallholder farmers. The project works with smallholder farmers to establish and strengthen business-oriented farmer groups. The project also promotes changes to national policy and legislation, in order to create a more conducive environment for their development.

Introduction of geoinformation technologies for building up a modern land management system in Georgia goes back to mid-1990s. This has been stimulated by start of land reform resulting in privatization of over 3 million agricultural land plots in whole in the entire country. These new properties were to be properly surveyed, registered and recorded in a newly established cadastral system with the aim of launching free market transactions.

How do we measure the success of agrarian transformation? Land reform, in- terpreted in the transition context as privatization of land with the associated is- sues of land market development and the restructuring of traditional large farms, is only one facet of a multi-dimensional process of transition to a market-oriented agriculture. However important land reform is, success requires progress in all relevant dimensions.

The livelihood of a large part of the world’s population depends directly on access to land and its secure longterm use. Land access and use have long been organized through informal or traditional tenure rights, but this is changing. In many regions, land use is being transformed by the expansion of large-scale agricultural investments, a development that was triggered by the 2007–08 food, energy, and financial crises.