AZG Armenian Daily #112, 18/06/2005

Economy

FARMERS TO GET INVOLVED IN IRRIGATION MANAGING

20.000 More Irrigated Hectares in One Year

200 thousand hectares of Soviet Armenia’s territory used to be
irrigated. But by mid-1990s this number reduced to 100 thousand
hectares. What’s the reason and what should the state do to cut short
this tendency threatening agriculture’s development?

As a result of land privatization, almost 450.000 hectares of
agricultural lots got denationalized and divided into 1.4 million
small areas. Consequently, it became difficult to supervise the
irrigation network built in the Soviet times. They were built to pump
water to huge ground area (up to hundreds of hectares) and now they
had to serve thousand of tiny lots.

On the other hand, the irrigation system underwent almost no
repair. These two factors had their impact on water supplying. The
peasants constantly complained of water supply being late, of
insufficient water or high fees, and the water supplying organization
complained of the farmers failing to pay which resulted in money
scarcity for the system’s normal functioning.

Not only did the network’s repair on World Bank’s finances help the
sphere but also implementation of reforms in the management of the
sphere. The Office of Development and Reforms in the Water Industry,
which carries out credit projects financed by the WB, arrived at a
conclusion that the best way of managing irrigation system in Armenia
is by the farmers’ involvement.

This policy of water management is well accepted by states on different
levels of development. Along with such countries as the USA, Italy,
Spain and other EU states, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia have also adopted this system of water managing.

The first precedent of handing the irrigation water managing over
to consumers took place in 1996. The organization that spring up at
that time proved this principle to be functional but the loopholes in
the legislation and the absence of state support turned the attempts
futile. Additional examination and specialists’ discussions lasted
a few years before the law was drafted. Afterwards, in 2004, 54 such
organizations were created.

The purpose of these organizations is to provide the farmers as much
water as they need and whenever they need. For that, the farmers are
suggested to take up the management of the irrigation system. This
is the mechanism that will guarantee fairness and productiveness of
water supply. But the farmers are still to get acquainted with their
new rights to make them more active in protecting their rights. The
Office of Development and Reforms expressed readiness to support the
farmers and their organizations in this issue.

By Ara Martirosian