The idea and concept of the National Agricultural Olympiad (NAO) was created by the non-governmental organization “Agricultural Development Association”. The overall goal of the project is to facilitate the development of the agricultural educational sector and to create the institutionalized transnational mechanism of the knowledge evaluation in agricultural fields.
NAO conception is basically focused on revealing, evaluating and developing the knowledge of the specialists, as well as students and farmers in the priority and most demanded agricultural fields for the national and international labor market.
The most prioritized agricultural fields were identified by the Agricultural Development Association and its partners, in close cooperation with the educational and private sectors, based on the results of the implemented research of the labor market.
Within the framework of NAO, the knowledge evaluation in the selected agricultural fields will be provided by testing of the participant target groups (the specialists, students and farmers). The author of the test questions is the Agricultural Development Association. The test-questions are sorted according to the difficulty and each test-question has a relevant point.
The winners in each nomination (agricultural fields) will receive various types of prizes assigned by the organizers and sponsor organizations of NAO. Besides, the popularization of the winner participants is planned on the national level using the various media-resources and social networks.
In 2021 it is the first time NAO is planned to be held in the republic of Georgia and it intends to establish a championship focused on the knowledge and professional skills. NAO will support the specialists, students and farmers to reveal and publicize their knowledge and professional skills on the national level.
NAO is the innovative project for Georgia’s reality and in the region. At this stage the project is planned to be implemented by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the NGO Agricultural Development Association, under the patronage of the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture of Georgia.
The project especially focuses on spreading knowledge and information among the public about user-friendly agriculture technologies and keeping (preserving) natural biodiversity.
The partners of the project are: The USAID Agriculture Program, The project of the Austrian development Agency, Green Economy: Sustainable Mountain Tourism & Organic Agriculture (GRETA), Environmental Information and Education Centre and CENN – Caucasus Environmental NGO Network.