Friday, 27 March 2015
PM visits Armavir Marz
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan visited Armavir Marz. The head of government first called at Yeghegnut community’s poultry factory to get acquainted with the ongoing activities and investment projects.
Founded in 2013, the factory is engaged in poultry production. The managers reported that this year the level of poultry production is expected to reach 4 thousand tons, 30 percent more than last year.
To increase output, new equipment has recently been introduced, including incubators. As a result, the plant will not have to make imports from abroad. The total amount od investment is estimated at USD5-6 million.
Addressing the journalists, the Premier noted that serious investment has been made in poultry production.
“We need to encourage our producers and enable them to increase production volumes, which will create new jobs. At the same time, the population will be provided with locally produced goods. Armenia imports 30-31 tons of poultry annually, while we locally produce 9 400 tons. We can import less and produce more. For this purpose, the government is willing to support domestic producers,” he said.
Then Hovik Abrahamyan met with community leaders and farmers at the governor’s office. Agriculture Minister Sergo Karapetyan and Governor of Armavir Marz Ashot Ghahramanyan reported back preparations and activities for the spring agricultural campaign. The Minister of Agriculture said that all assistance programs will be continued. The Government will provide rural households with imported high quality grain crop seeds, fertilizers and diesel fuel at an affordable price. Sergo Karapetyan reminded that according to the Prime Minister’s instruction, agricultural loans will henceforth be subsidized at the rate of 6% instead of four percent. Lending will be vulnerable as of April 1, 2015.
At the same time, the Minister said that in order to ensure best possible organization of agricultural activities, appropriate measures have been implemented in the irrigation system. A number of deep wells have been rehabilitated on the Prime Minister’s instruction.
According to Sergo Karapetyan, appropriate steps are being performed to provide for better organization of post-harvest storage, distribution and processing activities.
At the same time, the Minister assured that the Government will stand by the farmers to give a speedy solution to any such problem as may arise during the agricultural campaign. To this end, a hotline is up at the Ministry of Agriculture.
In turn, Governor Ghahramanyan noted that farming activities have been given a successful start in the province. In process is the distribution of government-allocated seeds, fertilizers and diesel fuel. All the necessary conditions have been provided for the launch of the spring sowing campaign. The Governor stressed the relevant activities are carried out to increase the volume of agricultural exports.
The Prime Minister appreciated the work done by the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Water Committee in terms of spring campaign preparations.
“We noticed that the farmers had no serious complaints, whatsoever. This year, we started the preparations for the spring campaign as early as in January, and it is important for our farmers to face no irrigation problems. It was important for us to see that as an agricultural region, Armavir is ready for agricultural activities. Relevant work has been carried out that I can describe as positive,” the Prime Minister said.
At the same time, the government has urged the farmers to maximize the production of tomato, because it is in great demand. The Prime Minister pointed out that the Government is ready to support both tomato producers and processors with a variety of tools. Hovik Abrahamyan advised that asphalting work for Armavir-Yeraskhavan road section will start in the near future.
Also, discussed were issues related to road building, gas and water supply, infrastructure development activities in Armavir Marz.
