Gov. Continues to Fight Stink Bug in 2019

On 14 January, the Government approved plans to continue fighting the stink bug in 2019. The list of measures was accepted at a government commission led by Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze.

“The plan includes more effective steps, including the improvement of communication with the population”, reads the press release.

As part of the new measures, farmers are to receive an SMS to inform them about planned activities on a given day.

Stink bug first became problematic for Georgian farmers in 2015. It is a brown insect that damages crops, causing havoc for agriculturalists. Stink bugs destroyed a large amount of the hazelnut harvest in 2016 and continued to cause more wide-spread devastation in 2017.

In 2018, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) gave Georgia $3.5 million to help combat the problem. They also gave 17 tractors to the Georgian National Food Agency in Abasha.