YEREVAN, November 14. /ARKA/. Armenia’s ministry of agriculture will launch a pilot insurance project in 2019, the acting Minister of Agriculture Gegham Gevorgyan said today during a parliamentary discussion on next year’s draft budget.

He said the preparatory work took almost 24 months. The pilot project will involve 2-3 provinces and apply to 2-3 types of agricultural products. Gevorgyan said the project will be ready at the end of November and will be carried out jointly with local insurance companies. In this context, he pointed out the importance of the installation of anti-hail grids.

Armenia’s ministry of agriculture said earlier that the program with a total budget of 10 million euros to be provided on a parity basis by the government and donors would be launched in March 2019 and embrace three provinces of Ararat, Armavir and Shirak.

In Ararat and Armavir regions the insurance project was to involve damages caused to vineyards and fruit orchards, in Shirak region to potatoes and grains. 

The ministry said also that by the end of 2018 the government would set up the National Agency for Risk Assessment and Management to correctly assess the risks. Damage caused to crops in Armenia amounted to 6 billion drams in 2018, down from 12 billion drams in 2017 and 33 billion drams in 2016. ($ 1 – 488.68 drams). -0-