On May 31, the Agricultural Alliance of Armenia organised the Conference “Farmers’ Congress” within the framework of the “Participatory Policies – Sustainable Agriculture” sub-grant project implemented in the scope of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue (CCD) project. This was the final closing event of the project.
Mr. Andrea Baggioli, International Aid/Cooperation Officer, of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ms Margarita Hakobyan, Managing Director of the OxYGen Foundation, former Deputy Ministers of Agriculture Garnik Petrosyan and Tigran Gabrielyan, over six dozen farmers and co-operative representatives from different regions of Armenia, and representatives of local and international organizations attended the conference.
Margarita Hakobyan, Managing Director of the OxYGen Foundation, welcomed the participants and thanked the attendees for participating in such an important event. She talked about the EU-funded CCD project, the “Participatory Policies – Sustainable Agriculture” project and its results.
She touched upon the establishment, goals and activities of the Agricultural Alliance, and then presented the objectives of the event, officially announced the closure of the program and provided opportunity to farmers to express their views on the project, discuss their problems with decision-makers. According to her, more than 400 farmers’ proposals have been collected during discussions in the Town Hall meeting format implemented within the framework of the program, which is the basis of the conceptual documents elaborated by them.
Greeting the participants of the Congress, Garnik Petrosyan noted that it is an exclusive opportunity for dialogue and expressed hope that an effective discussion will be held among the participants of the forum, which will give an opportunity to reveal the problems of the sphere and present the priorities to be implemented.
According to Garnik Petrosyan, now the priority is the efficient use of the most important agricultural resource. He informed that a draft is being elaborated within the framework of which legislative solutions will be proposed to increase the level of land use by using land consolidation, leasing, redistribution and other mechanisms.
Tigran Gabrielyan in his turn noted that agriculture is a unique sphere and there is no need to expect rapid changes in this sphere. ”Our goal is to support farmers to earn higher incomes, increase GDP, increase export volumes and diversify export markets, increase food security, develop agricultural science and education, promote agrarianism,” he emphasized.
According to him, a special strategy has been elaborated to achieve this, particularly in the use of land and water, land consolidation, risk management and reduction, development of market relations, as well as promotion of organic and high-value agricultural production.
Touching upon the programs implemented by the European Union in the agricultural sector of Armenia, Andrea Baggioli, International Aid/Cooperation Officer, of the EU Delegation to Armenia, noted that the most important emphasis is on the formation of value chains and cooperatives, and added that 53 farming cooperatives and 4 groups were already formed, works on the added value of berries have been done, assistance has been provided to promote the production of high quality agricultural products, including goat cheese. He also added that currently works are underway to restore agricultural infrastructure and pastures.
Farmers from different regions of Armenia followed each other to ask questions to government representatives, community members, raise issues, present their opinions and suggestions to the members of the Agricultural Alliance.
