Panjab Farmers Reap Rich Harvest in Georgia

In 2012 an advertisement appeared in Panjab newspapers about the availability of farmland in Georgia. Many from Panjab, seeking opportunities abroad, discovered the vast stretches of affordable farmland in Tsnori and other parts of the country. Now, after over a decade, Tsnori bears the testimony of Panjab farmers’ brave effort, sowing the seeds of a change in this distant land and going on to inspire local farmers to do the same. Tsnori is now home to around 30 farmers from Panjab, who cultivate mainly wheat and barley on around 4,000 hectares. In other parts of Georgia, Panjab farmers are also cultivating sunflower, maize, and vegetables. Tarlok Singh Khaira from Panjab’s Deharka village in Ludhiana district shuttles between Deharka and Tsnori, farming at both places. Tarlok has been cultivating wheat on 50 hectares (around 125 acres) he purchased in November 2012 along with his relative Surjit Singh Gill of Mansur Deva village in Faridkot district. Gurpreet Singh Brar, from Faridkot bought 47 hectares in Tsnori the same year. He has been growing wheat since then. Brar said after seeing them working in the fields, many local farmers in Tsnori resumed farming on the fields lying uncultivated. ‘And those who had sold their land to Punjab farmers started asking them if they could sell back their land to them.’ Tsnori is located in the Kakheti region of Georgia, which was part of the erstwhile USSR. Kakheti accounts for 40.1% of Georgia’s farmland. Kakheti is also Georgia’s wine region; vineyards have been grown for the past 8,000 years. Panjab farmers say now they have learned basic Georgian and feel at home in the picturesque Caucasus region.