Traveling west out of Tbelisi through semi flat grazing lands bordered by steep shrub covered hills we turned north toward the Caucasian mountains. Almost immediately the roads twisted and climbed through tree covered hills. Crossing over a high crest we viewed a wide valley of rolling farms and rural homes. Although mostly one half to two acre hilly plots there was more corn fields in this valley than all of the East Georgian land that I’ve seen combined. Most of the arable land in this valley was in production of crops or vegetables or pasture. Corn was generally 60 to 80 bushel yielding and weed control could be better.
At the edge of town we easily spotted the new Mechanization Service Center painted white and bright green with new machines in the courtyard. A group of people were waiting for us. We were greeted by the owner and invited into the conference room. About a dozen men and two women followed us and took seats around the conference table. Expecting to do interviews with the owner and a few farmers I had a few moments of awkwardness wondering what they expected of me. I asked Ia to introduce me after which I began asking about their problems.
They said they need the government to restore irrigation. There apparently was a channel irrigation system in Soviet times. I asked about the average annual rain and seasonality. I said “Well none of us independent farmers has enough money to restore the irrigation so maybe we can figure out how to improve production without irrigation. I mentioned that even though my soils are not as good as Georgian soils I can get 12 ton per hectare shelled corn and 17 ton per hectare ear corn with 100 centimeters of average rainfall. Apparently I was introduced as a no-till expert and the questions started pouring forth about no-till. I realized I was here to give a no-till talk.
The group ardently thanked me at the end of our three hour discussion. I learned that the MSC just started in May 2011 and already see that there is far more demand for the services than they can meet with one new tractor. They suggested another Machinery Service Center in the next region. This MSC offered more than machinery service with extensive shelves full of diverse farm supplies.
The car climbed steeply turning sharp switchbacks through rural residential outskirts of town. Climbing climbing opened views of the deep valley below. The driver most of the time resisted passing on the two-way winding narrow road. Higher and higher we climbed – now there we sizable farms along the road – mountaintop farms growing pretty good corn and grazing cattle. To the north in the distance the Caucasian mountains, to the southwest high tops through the clouds mountains and to the immediate left a tree-lined canyon at least a mile deep. After traveling about fifteen curvy miles on the ridge top, the road began a gradual descent into the canyon which now transitioned into a deep narrow gorge line by rock cliffs some places undercut by flowing water - quite an impressive natural feature. The drivers said this area is popular for rock climbing Europeans and Americans. In the bottom of the gorge alongside the road were a string of neglected manufacturing structures of a manganese industry. Several gondolas crossed the gorge at least one operating.
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