ABOUT 30 THOUSAND HECTARES OF LAND IN ARARAT VALLEY BECOMES DESERT AS RESULT OF SALINATION

Noyan Tapan
May 16 2006

ARMAVIR, MAY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Some lands in the Ararat Valley
remain uncultivated: about 150 ha become desert here each year. NT
correspondent was informed from Sanasar Baghdasarian, Deputy Head of
the Agriculture and Environmental Protection Department of the Armavir
regional administration that some peasants were allocated saline lands
during the privatization process, and as in 1990-1991 the drenage
system was not cleaned, a double salination occured in these areas,
as a result of which peasants are not able to cultivate the privatized
land plots. For example, the Artashar community of Armavir marz has
about 500 ha, nearly 300 ha of which are saline lands. The community
cannot convert saline lands to crop lands with its own resources,
so the area of saline land is increasing each year. The peasants
claim that the land salination process could have been prevented
if the drenage system had operated. But the drenage system has not
been operating for a long time, and no cultured plants can be grown
in these areas. According to S. Baghdasarian, desalination requires
much investment, and a necessity for state assistance has arisen. He
said that about 30 thousand ha of land in the Ararat Valley has
become desert as a result of salination. Considerable work on land
desalination was carried out in the Soviet time, and before 1990,
almost 1,500 ha of land was desalinated. However, today these lands
are again facing the treat of salination.