Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today visited the Ministry of Agriculture to introduce newly appointed minister Gegham Gevorgyan to the ministry staff.

Nikol Pashinyan thanked outgoing minister Arthur Khachatryan for the effective joint work and congratulated acting minister Gegham Gevorgyan, wishing him good luck

Regarding the sector’s priorities, the Acting Prime Minister said: “We have serious problems in the field of agriculture. These problems are ideological, technical and operational. We have the task of transforming the structure of our economy so that Armenia generally could shift from agrarian country to industrialized country, but this does not mean that the role of the agricultural sector can be considered underestimated. On the contrary, agriculture has been and will remain one of the most important areas in all countries and we have a problem of increasing our agricultural productivity, our agricultural infrastructure, access to new markets, the introduction of new crops in agriculture, the application of new technologies in agriculture and irrigation. in terms of using water more efficiently and so on. All these problems should be solved in our work together.”

Nikol Pashinyan spoke about some of those issues identified during his recent working visit to the Ararat Marz. “Recycling has reached the point where our agriculture may no longer be able to provide the necessary raw materials, in this case the crops needed to ensure the full production volume. I would like to come back to the logic that instead of poverty, we should encourage work in our country. In several factories in the province of Ararat, for example, in conversations with us, they told us that they were ready and ready to receive unlimited amounts of raspberries, mulberry trees, and other crops and also cash that grow in the wild. And there are people who have established partnerships with these factories and have been working with them for years. This is demonstrated by the fact that this type of activity is profitable.”

The Acting Prime Minister stressed that there is much talk of unemployment and lack of jobs in Armenia. “Yes, this problem exists, but first we have thousands of vacancies in our country today, and secondly, there is a possibility of unlimited work, which is not used unfortunately, we must convey this message very clearly to our citizens, because there are many socio-economic problems in the country and we need to get out of the mentality that only the government should solve these problems. No problem can be solved if there is no partnership citizen-government- community, if nobody does what they have to do. How can one think that the government will take better care of the well-being of any family, if the family itself does not do at least the maximum to ensure its well-being. This is a very important fact, and we must work together to see what opportunities, including the Ministry of Agriculture, help people to know about these economic opportunities,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

According to him, in some cases, agricultural products are imported from abroad and, as production volumes increase, markets develop, it is necessary to work together to develop the local market, meet the demand for processing and production industries and solve other problems facing the sector.

Former Minister Artur Khachatryan thanked the Acting Prime Minister for joint work, congratulated Gegham Gevorgyan and expressed willingness to help him, as well as the ministry team in their future activities.

The newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Gegham Gevorgyan, thanked the acting Head of Government for trust and assured that the Ministry will present the guidelines that will transform agriculture and give farmers the opportunity to engage in agriculture, which will significantly improve their quality of life.

Gegham Gevorgyan also thanked former Minister Artur Khachatryan for joint work and his willingness to continue to support the development of the agricultural sector.