ABSTRACT
The previous chapters showed how traditional ecological knowledge became more and more effective for subsistence economy. The major characteristics of this knowledge were formed ca. 3,000 years ago and subsequently did not change tangibly – an indication of sustainability. At the same time, Georgia’s traditional agriculture is practised under very diverse environmental conditions, which is an indication of the adaptability of this system. This can also be seen through historic time, as the traditional subsistence economies successfully modified themselves to the sequence of warm and cold climates (the Roman Warm Period to the Little Ice Age to the Medieval Warm Period, etc.). Certain synergies which underpin sustainability are easily discernible in the traditional agriculture of Georgia. The first is the interaction between farming and herding within communities; farming provides not only products for human consumption but also a large support to animal husbandry giving fodder, grain, etc., whilst herding, along with high protein food and fat for human consumption, produces manure for fertilising farmlands and working animals for ploughing and transporting. A further example is the interaction between communities, such as in trade. The products of herding (skins, meat, clarified butter, cheese, etc.) from highland communities are traded for the products of farming (wheat, wine, vegetables, fruits, etc.) from lowland communities. The adaptability of Georgia’s traditional agriculture shows various components, among them irrigation and crop rotation being the most easily discernible. The above technologies and interactions are associated with the lore, rules, ethics, identity, and worldview of the people inhabiting Georgia.
