Page 419 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS302 Maia Guntsadze
meadows. 43% of the remaining area is covered with forest. Georgia has a
wide variety of ecological and climatic zones conducive to the growth of for
temperate climate and subtropical crops.
Total area of Georgia is 69,700 km2. 43.3% of the total area of the country
(30.2 km2) is occupied by agricultural land (2005). Annual crops occupy 220.3
thousand hectares, and the perennial crops occupy 120.8 thousand hectares
of land (2007). Besides, 43.2% of the country’s territory is covered by forest
fund (2010). If Georgia were an EU members state today, it would rank 17th
based on its area, and it would represent 1.6% of the total area of the EU
(EU28). Population of Georgia is 3,729.6 thousand people, 41.6% of which
(1,554.8 thousand people) lives in rural areas (2018). 75% of the rural
population is self-employed, mostly in the agricultural sector. Besides, in 2017,
43.1% of labor force was employed in agriculture, hunting and forestry, fishing
and fishery industry, and total share of this sector was 8.2% in the GDP.
Almost all households living in villages are agricultural holdings and even
in small towns 2/3 of households are engaged in agriculture. Overall, 3 out of
5 household are engaged in agriculture and they are spread through every
region of the country. According to the Census of Agriculture 2014, total
number of agricultural holdings is around 642 thousand, out of them only 2
thousand are legal entities while other 640 thousands are households.
Majority of agricultural holdings are small and they produce agricultural
products for their own consumption.
Due to favorable geographical location and climate, Georgia produces
more than 25 kinds of permanent and more than 20 kinds of annual crops.
Also animal husbandry is quite common in Georgia. One of the specificity of
the country is that the agricultural sector is not well-specialized and majority
of holdings produce many different kinds of agricultural products.
Statistical system in Georgia is centralized. The Law of Georgia on Official
Statistics creates a general framework for statistical system in the country and
sets coordination principles for all institutions responsible for producing
official statistics in Georgia. According to the law, production and
dissemination of statistics shall be based on the 10 basic UN principles of
official statistics. Geostat is a coordinating body of Georgia's statistical system
and the only producer of official agricultural statistics in the country . Geostat
1
is the agency responsible for conducting population and housing censuses, as
well as agricultural census and economic censuses.

The Georgian statistical system covers the whole area of the country, except the occupied
1
territories
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