Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Seed breeding program implementation discussed
A consultative meeting was held at the Office of Government under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Agriculture, marz governors, other officials, as well as President of Russian “Semena” association Ivan Kuzmin and CEO of “Semena Stavropolia” LLC Grigory Dontsov who played a key role in the timely transportation of Russian seeds.
In his introductory remarks, the Prime Minister said that the meeting was called to identify existing challenges and understand the way the seeds are distributed in the provinces.
Speaking on his government’s strategic priorities in this area, Tigran Sargsyan stated in part: “This is a seed breeding rehabilitation program rather than a program of assistance. It addresses such specialized entities as shall engage in long-term cooperation with the State, which implies that the farmers will have to allow for and comply with soil quality and other technical requirements. They will have to be monitored by our seed-breeding companies. In this way, we expect to meet the proposed benchmark of 30.000 tons of seeds produced annually which will make of Armenia self-sufficient in this field.”
Following the Prime Minister’s comments, the floor was given to the Minister of Agriculture and the marz governors who reported on seed distribution and contract signing processes.
Tigran Sargsyan appreciated the fact that the Russian guests are scheduled to hold seminars on the use of the imported seeds for local farmers and staff of seed-breeding stations which will take place in Armenia’s State Agrarian University.
The meeting next discussed some details of the organic fertilizer testing pilot program. Considering that this will help boost demand for domestic products, Tigran Sargsyan told the marz governors to keep the program under their personal control.
