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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Fri Jul 29 2011 - 23:53:23 EDT
White South African farmers seek new life in Georgia
Jul 22, 2011 | Sapa-AFP
http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2011/07/22/white-south-african-farmers-seek-new-life-in-georgia
A long way from his South African birthplace, amid the sweeping wheat fields
of eastern Georgia, farmer Piet Kemp says that he has found a new home in
this former Soviet republic.
Farmers harvest wheat. File picture.
Photograph by: EDUARD KORNIYENKO
And if the government gets its wish, hundreds more like Kemp will follow to
help revive Georgia's ailing agricultural sector, bringing in both cash and
expertise.
Shaken by violent attacks and reforms to transfer land to blacks in South
Africa, many white farmers have been emigrating, and 10 have already
relocated to Georgia to set up businesses under a programme launched by the
government.
Kemp was the first of them to make the move, lured by local business
opportunities -- and the promise of security.
"I do not want to live in constant fear," the 67-year-old said emotionally
as he recalled the widespread killings of other white farmers in South
Africa.
"We tried to defend our rights, but we lost this war."
When the apartheid system ended in 1994, 87 per cent of commercial farms
belonged to the white minority, including Boers like Kemp, descendants of
Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 17th century.
Discontent grew among Boers after the government started to redistribute
farmlands in an attempt to counter apartheid-era discrimination.
Amid the violence, Kemp said that he felt he had no choice but to leave.
"In Georgia there is no violence, the crime rate is extremely low. So I will
never go back," Kemp declared, comparing the situation here to the high
violent crime rates back home, which include some 46 murders a day.
He sold his farm in South Africa's Mpumalanga province, was given Georgian
citizenship and in March this year rented 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of land
in the village of Sartichala, where he now cultivates maize and wheat.
"I moved to Georgia because I see tremendous opportunities here -- there is
a good climate, fertile soil and a good market," he said.
Georgian Diaspora Minister Mirza Davitaia, who is in charge of the scheme,
said "it is a very important investment initiative."
"Serious capital will be invested in Georgia's agricultural sector."
South African farmers, he said, "will bring in their skills, experience and
technology."
A website, www.boers.ge, was set up to attract interest, and Davitaia said
he believed that the 10 South African farmers who have already moved to
Georgia will be followed by hundreds of other Boers.
But near Kemp's land in the village of Sartichala, some Georgian farmers
said that the authorities should be supporting them ahead of foreign
immigrants.
"I have nothing against Boers, but our government should first care about
its citizens. Georgian villages, Georgian agriculture and Georgian peasants
have been neglected for decades," said one of them, Tengo Paatashvili.
Others said however that they would be grateful for any help in revitalising
the country's agricultural sector.
"Whoever comes to Georgia with good intentions is welcome. There is plenty
of land in the country that is going to waste," said farmer Lado
Aladashvili.
The authorities need all the help they can get, because although Georgian
land is incredibly fertile and a large proportion of its population works in
agriculture, more than 80 per cent of foodstuffs are imported, fuelling
drastic food-price inflation.
Georgia was once one of the larders of the Soviet Union, renowned for its
citrus fruits, grapes, nuts and tea, but the amount of cultivated land has
diminished by 43 per cent over the last seven years.
A hasty privatisation programme after independence in the 1990s aided the
decline, when small plots of state-owned land were handed to millions of
farmers, saving them from starvation but creating an inefficient subsistence
farming system.
"Georgia has real potential to become a net exporter of agricultural
products: fruits, vegetables, meat and cattle," said agriculture expert
David Shervashidze.
"The main challenge is the lack of funds, both domestic and foreign
investments."
Earlier this year, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called for
large-scale modernisation to turn the country's "mediaeval agriculture
sector into the agriculture of the 21st century" and make it a major source
of income.
The plan to attract Boer farmers to relocate to this distant ex-Soviet state
is part of Saakashvili's vision, but although their numbers may turn out to
be small, they could make a difference, expert Shervashidze suggested.
"They are the world's best farmers. They bring in cash, create new jobs and
set up efficient businesses," he said.
At his new farm in Sartichala, Kemp is now getting ready for his family to
rejoin him.
He has made friends with locals, is learning the Georgian language and is
even thinking of converting to the national religion, Orthodox Christianity.
"I came to Georgia to be a Georgian," he said.
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