FAO helps Georgia protect native livestock breeds via AI

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) brought national stakeholders together in Tbilisi this week for a workshop on animal genetic resources. The initial meeting was followed by field visits to the mountainous regions of Georgia, where the team collected data to help protect the country’s native cattle breeds as part of a broader effort that includes a new AI-powered breed identification tool.

The mission, in close collaboration with Scientific-Research Centre of Agriculture (SRCA) of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, focused on how the country collects, manages and reports data on its livestock breeds. The data feeds into FAO’s Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS), the global reference database that tracks nearly 9 000 breeds across 38 species worldwide. Georgia currently has 48 breeds registered in DAD-IS, 40 of them local and eight regional transboundary. Around half of these breeds already have reporting data in place regarding conservation status, but information on population size is missing for many breeds, and the workshop is helping Georgia build towards tracking breed extinction risk as well.

“Georgia has a rich livestock heritage and a strong foundation to build on,” says Tibor Szucs, FAO Livestock Production Specialist. “By strengthening animal genetic resources data and improving collaboration among institutions, we are not only supporting national priorities but also contributing to the global knowledge needed to conserve livestock diversity for future generations.”

Discussions also explored how new technology could support this work. FAO is developing a mobile application that allows field staff to photograph an animal and receive an AI-generated breed suggestion. Early tests elsewhere have shown strong accuracy, and building a similar tool for Georgia will require the collection of reference images of the country’s cattle breeds.

In the second half of the week, the FAO team travelled to the country’s mountainous areas to photograph indigenous cattle breeds, identified by the SRCA, in the field. This first step towards building the application’s dataset also served as an early test of whether the tool can support breed identification on the ground. The visits also included meetings with national authorities, research institutions, and other stakeholders involved in managing animal genetic resources in Georgia.

By combining stronger data reporting with practical digital tools, FAO and its partners aim to help Georgia build a lasting system for monitoring and protecting its livestock diversity. This includes reporting on the progress made on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 2.5.2, tracking the risk of extinction facing livestock breeds.