DECREASING FIELDS OF SUBSIDIARY FARMS IN SAMTSKHE –JAVAKHETI REGION

(Ochkhe)

Abstract

Fishering as the subsidiary industry has been well known among the inhabitants of Samtskhe-Javakheti since ancient times.The natural environment, waterfull rivers and lakes of Samtskhe-Javakhetii and mountainious regions of Shavshet-Klarjeti, formed excellent conditions for developing the fishing farming. Both written sources and ethnological materials clearly show that high level of fishing was developed in the villages of Samtskhe-Javakheti (Gogasheni, Zeda Tmogvi, Saro, Khizabavra, Minadze) Ochkhe fishing was highly developed in the part of the region where the inhabitants lived near the Mtkvari river as this interesting field of subsidiary farming was the most important economical income for the inhabitants of those territories. Unfortunately from the70-80s of the XX century, the poachers started to use pesticides, electric shock and dynamite explosions for Barbaric fishing, as a result of this the number of fish in the rivers greatly decreased (moreover, some kinds of species wholly disappeared) So, it was no use of making Ochkhi, as people thought that no fish would enter it. And if fish entered, inhabitants had no guarantee, safe insurance against the poachers’ activities like fish stealing, using dynamite explosion or electric shock. These are the reasons why this original fishering method is threatened to disappear.