Friday, 14 October 2011
New Agriculture Development Tools To Be Introduced In Armenia
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan attended the opening of “Armagroforum,” the first two-day world gathering of Armenian farmers, which was held at the Yerevan Sport and Concert Complex after Karen Demirchyan.
Addressing the event, the Premier said the government looks upon the forum as an important step toward expanding international cooperation in agriculture.
Serious problems and achievements were said available in Armenia’s agrarian sector: “We have covered a path full of hardships over the past 20 years and are facing numerous problems. We should expose the potential available in the sphere of agriculture and put it at the people’s service. From this perspective, there was a key principle stipulated in the President’s electoral program that is to ensure proportionate regional development in Armenia. This target cannot be met, if we fail to modernize agriculture. The modern world creates new development possibilities for the farming sector by means of enhanced information technologies and research.”
Noting that our country boasts today some 340 thousand farms and 430 thousand hectares of cultivated land, the Prime Minister said that the average size of plots of land held by individual farmers is rather small: “While developing programs we should think of how we could best organize activities in the sphere of agriculture. From this point of view, I appreciate the government-approved concept of development of agriculture which has been discussed with the Public Council, various agricultural trade unions and scientific institutions. We have tried to cover the whole complex of organizational principles in this paper including the problems faced in the countryside in general.”
Stressing that the display of complex approaches is an imperative of the modern world, Tigran Sargsyan stated as follows: “That is our task consists in making the farmers’ life more productive. One of the problems facing the government is the construction of modern infrastructures - roads, drinking and irrigating water supply and so on. The latter are sure to open up new development opportunities for our farmers.”
Appreciative of those projects implemented with the international organizations, the head of government said that countryside people get new knowledge, agricultural machinery owing to them. The Prime Minister emphasized that either 2012 will be proclaimed as year of agriculture.
With World Bank’s support, new mechanisms of management will be introduced and cooperative societies generated in 55 communities. “Cooperation will be promoted to ensure 30% efficiency in agriculture,” Tigran Sargsyan pointed out adding that the State will co-finance the purchase of agricultural machinery at the rate of 50 percent.
According to the Premier, actions like that will cover the whole sector, from seed-breeding to horticulture.
The Prime Minister expressed hope that Armagroforum will promote the development of agriculture in our country.
The forum will examine the existing problems and the ongoing programs. It will enable domestic, Diaspora and foreign businessmen to showcase their products and services, establish mutually advantageous cooperation, familiarize themselves with Armenia’s investment opportunities and advanced international experience of development of agriculture. The purpose of the forum is to create a pan-Armenian association of businessmen and farmers.
As decided by the government, from now on every third Sunday of October will be marked as Farmer’s Day in Armenia. In this connection, various actions, fairs, exhibitions will be held in Yerevan and the provinces of the Republic of Armenia.
