EXPERT: COOPERATION SMALL FARMS TO MAKE SALES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS EASIER

/ARKA/
April 16, 2010
YEREVAN

Cooperation small farms will make sales of agricultural products
easier, Ashot Voskanyan, director of the centre for supporting
agriculture and former agriculture minister, said Friday at a
conference in Armenian State Agrarian University.

"In all developed countries, agrarian policy is successful only when
farms cooperate. Armenia too can’t avoid this stage of development."

He said that farmers’ views on the matter are various. Many of them
fear they could lose their legal ownership of land.

There is also concern over possible difficulties connected with
taxation after farms get status of legal entity.

Voskanyan also said that the practice of joint work is underdeveloped
in Armenian villages. Armenian Public Council has come up with an
initiative to discuss the idea of cooperation implying mergers in
agriculture sector.

Specialists think that small farms are unprofitable and their cost
price is higher. Armenian farms are mostly small (about 1 hectares),
while those in western countries 100-hectare farms are viewed
profitable.