Thursday, 8 July 2010
Wheat crop areas to grow to 3000 tons of seeds produced yearly
The Government approved today Armenia’s seed-breeding and seed-cultivating program for 2010-2013. RA Minister of Agriculture Gerasim Alaverdyan detailed the program for media representatives in the Government’s Press Center.
According to the Minister, no high-standard seeds have been imported into the country for the past 7.10 years due to which wheat crop areas fell to 82,000 ha from 130,000 ha of 2005.
Most of 650-720 thousand tons of annually consumed wheat is imported. 2000t wheat was produced in Armenia in 2010 and the rest was imported in the period under review. The program at issue will help take crop areas up to 120,000 hectares by 2014, with gross produce supposed to reach 400-420 thousand tons. This will raise Armenia’s wheat self-sufficiency from the current 37% to some 55%. The speaker further advised that at its today’s sitting the government decided to allocate AMD 558mn as part the State assistance program.
As assured by Mr. Alaverdyan, an expert group will be fielded to Russia’s Stavropol region to have 1000 tons of elite seeds imported into Armenia. The imported stock will be distributed among eligible farmers selected according to the following criteria established by the Ministry of Agriculture: land contamination rate, availability of cultivated areas above 3 thousand hectares, conduct of chemical weeding campaigns and so on. Recipient farmers will have to return twice as many seeds to the Ministry of Agriculture next year. The program is expected to ensure that 3000t seeds are produced in Armenia annually.
In conclusion, the Minister advised that Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan has told marz governors to submit the lists of eligible land areas available in marzes.
