Agriculture Monitor Worldwide
Wednesday
Agriculture in Armenia degrades
Armenia sees a decline in almost all sectors of the economy, which is no surprise to anyone, as the country has no opportunity to develop due to its political instability and aggressive policy. However, the deepening crisis in the agriculture sector caused alarm of the experts and society.
There are less and less hopes for the development of agriculture in Armenia.
In August 2018, the gross agricultural output fell by almost 17 percent compared to August last year, or by about 20 billion drams ($41 million).
In turn, this led to a decrease in the indicator of economic activity (again, compared to the same indicator in 2017) to the unprecedented 100.6 percent.
Experts were divided in opinions due to what happened so catastrophic fall. Advisor to the Prime Minister Varazdat Karapetyan first came to the conclusion that such a significant drop in August volumes in agriculture was due to the illegal re-export of Turkish tomatoes from Armenia to Russia. Another explanation of Karapetyan was associated with bloated figures of areas allocated for crops in the past.
Avetik Chalabyan, owner of the company Armberry, consider that such a huge fall can only be due to one factor – namely, the fact that during the summer heat the government banned the release of water from Sevan, that ultimately resulted in a huge crop loss.
Agriculture losses in Armenia are due to the lack of sufficient irrigation water during the hottest period. It is not difficult to guess that the villagers, who are under the pressure of loans, have accumulated a lot of questions to Pashinyan, who opposed additional water releases from Sevan. And the current government, judging by the conversations with their officials, does not know how to solve this problem. In any case, it has not taken any steps for this purpose.
Modern Armenia is a country where there is no agricultural equipment, where is the level of manual labor somewhere on the level of the 19th century. Due to abnormal heat in Armenia, a lack of irrigation water appeared. And instead of helping the villagers get out of the current situation with minimal losses, Ministry of agriculture preferred to keep silent. What to say, if there is nothing to answer?
And it`s not just that. One of the main problems of agriculture in Armenia is the deterioration of the machine and tractor fleet, the lack of specialists, the inaccessibility of credit and leasing programs for rural residents. How can agriculture be developed if the country has the youngest combine harvester produced in 1941…
Armenian agriculture began to die in the late 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were expelled from the country, most of whom worked on the land. The land was left without true owners, the agrarian sector of the country is currently reaping the harvest of that ethnic cleansing and it is doubtful that it will be reborn. 2018 Global Data Point.