STATE AID TO FARMERS
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
29 Oct 04
The passing year was unfavourable for agriculture in the republic,
first of all because of lasting natural disasters – frost, hails,
heavy rains, and later pests. The crops sown in autumn and spring
suffered most of all. More than 1700 hectares of winter wheat was
fully or partly damaged (in this and the following data the region of
Kashatagh is not included), 257 hectares were hail-hit, 534 hectares
were frozen, 532 hectares were damaged by pests and 373 hectares
burnt. If add to this the damage caused by natural disasters to spring
crops, fruit orchards and other perennial crops, the picture will
become complete. On the whole, 6000 hectares of farming land under
winter and spring crops were damaged and the material damage totaled
5.5 billion drams. This worries the NKR government. In this situation
the private farmer needs the direct practical assistance of the
government. NKR minister of agriculture Benik Bakhshiyan informed our
correspondent that only in the past two weeks NKR president Arkady
Ghukassian held several consultations with the responsible bodies and
tasked them with taking necessary measures to overcome the situation
in the shortest possible time. To aid the villages which suffered most
700 hectares of high quality seed wheat will be provided to farmers in
the form of interest-free loan for a two-year term (totaling 130
million drams) at the condition that during 2 years the same amount of
wheat must be returned instead of the borrowed seed wheat. The NKR
minister of agriculture said the distribution of wheat has already
started and is directly controlled by the heads of the regional
administrations. At the same time he asked the farmers to keep the
right order of agricultural works, crop circulation, in order to avoid
losses and maintain a basis for reproduction of arable crops and have
an effective yield.
AA.
29-10-2004