Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a consultative meeting to discuss the ongoing preparations for the agricultural season.

To begin with, the Premier noted that agriculture is becoming one of the most important and exciting sectors, especially amid the coronavirus-related crisis.

“This sector has always been interesting, but today it comes to the forefront for several reasons. Firstly, food security is becoming increasingly relevant and important not only in the Republic of Armenia, but throughout the world. Secondly, agriculture is a sector where there are more preferable and effective opportunities for maintaining social distance. Thirdly, we see wide opportunities for generating new jobs and for ensuring self-employment in agriculture. In particular, abandoned land can come back into use. And fourthly, we believe that the time has come to implement such institutional reforms that seemed to be impossible for objective or subjective reasons,” the Prime Minister said, noting that various issues had been discussed within the operational group on economic issues.

Nikol Pashinyan stressed the need for promoting the formation of agricultural cooperatives in Armenia. “We believe that this vector of our activities may open up new opportunities for all those who have not so far been successful in agriculture at the individual level and may face restrictions in terms of easy access to other programs due to bad borrower’s record. This vector is very important indeed, and the government needs to take on special responsibility in setting clear standards for the management of agricultural cooperatives. In particular, there is such an idea that the leaders of cooperatives should be licensed people who have passed special courses, who must take courses again at some intervals, possibly re-confirm the license, and so on,” Prime Minister Pashinyan said, noting that the idea is still under discussion.

Then the work on vaccination of farm animals, diagnostics of diseases and establishment of veterinary centers, which are carried out by the Government in cooperation with the Agribusiness and Rural Development Center, was presented.

The responsible persons reported that the works on water supply for irrigation were carried out in time and properly, providing details on the amount of accumulated water in the reservoirs and steps for efficient use of water resources.

It was noted that cleaning of 2,500 kilometers has already been carried out in the main channels, which is 1,000 kilometers more than in the previous year. It was reported that as a result of cooperation with donors this year, cooperatives of 39 communities will be provided with agricultural equipment worth 630 million drams.

The meeting also touched upon issues related to pasture irrigation, the development of cooperatives in villages, the proper organization of the purchase of grapes and the provision of assistance to processing companies.

Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized the importance of consistent and coordinated work of departments in all of the above areas, emphasizing the need to provide citizens with appropriate information on the possibilities of implemented programs, including the development of cooperatives, and the possibility of acquiring agricultural machinery on favorable terms.

Nikol Pashinyan noted that the events should be organized in such a way that, as a result, the conditions necessary for the start of spring agricultural work were provided for farmers.