From Peasant to Farmer | Nino Zambakhidze | TEDxTbilisi

The personal story of a woman-farmer who changed career and got involved in agriculture. Nino Zambakhidze’s dairy and distribution company in the Republic of Georgia started, like many great business ideas, from humble origins. In 2008, a friend bought two cows on a whim in Samskhe Javahketi, a poor, rural underserved region far south of the bustling capital, Tbilisi, where she grew up. She was raised not as a farmer, but as an educator and a business major, as she helped him figure how where to keep these new acquisitions. Together, they asked a lot of questions, leading them to owning land, buying more cows, buying feed, making feed, and paving the way for other small farmers to grow into a wider dairy cooperative. Nino, who spent a year living in the U.S. as a teen and had graduated with a degree in business and marketing at the Tbilisi Technical University, had always dreamt of starting her own company, and in fact, had already had some success with a company providing coffee and tea to hotels and restaurants. But having heard about the great dairy potential of the region, she knew that this new idea was destined to be successful. And thus, the Georgian Business Zone company was born. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx