Land users of 37 border villages of Armenia will receive state  assistance

ArmInfo. The actual land users of 37 border villages of Armenia will receive state assistance during the autumn field work. The decision was taken at the November  29 meeting of the RA government.

According to the Acting Minister of Agriculture of Armenia Gegham  Gevorkian, in fact, the matter concerns farmers in Tavush region, who  will receive 60 thousand drams for working on one hectare of land.  Currently, this provision applies to those individuals who possess  the necessary certificates confirming land rights. However, de facto  there are much more agricultural lands. In this regard, it is  proposed to extend state assistance to all frontier lands, which will  allow increasing the area of cultivated land, increasing the  productivity of agricultural production. At the same time, the  monitoring of the effectiveness of public resources used will be  reduced from 10% to 3%, thereby, public funds will be saved.  Gegham  Gevorgyan stressed that this government initiative will be aimed at  attracting an additional 900 beneficiaries to the program of three  thousand who are already participating in it. In total, 150 million  drams will be sent to solve the task. Thus, as the Acting Minister  stressed, for land users of 37 border communities, equal conditions  will be created to increase the level of use of crop land, use of  uncultivated land, increase incomes of peasant farms.

Earlier, ArmInfo, citing Gegham Gevorgyan, reported that according to  the agricultural production development strategy, by 2020 the area of  cropland in Armenia will increase to 72% against 50% at present. In  2019, it is planned to increase by 4.5% the volume of agricultural  production, bringing them by 2020 to 16%. At the same time, the  livestock of small cattle is planned to increase from the current 55  thousand to 66 thousand, and large - from the current 15 thousand to  25 thousand. It is planned to carry out a lot of work in the  direction of improving the efficiency of pastures, which, according  to a point estimate, should increase from 15 points to 84 points.

The Acting Minister also said that the implementation of the program  of subsidizing agricultural loans will continue. At the same time,  the maximum loan size from the current 4.2 million drams is planned  to increase to 5 million drams. Basically, small farms will be  subsidized in order to bring them to the level of medium ones. In  general, as of October of this year 16 billion drams loan portfolio  has already been formed. The state will also assist those farmers who  register in the state land registry. This assistance will be directed  to those villagers who are really engaged in business. At the same  time, the state will no longer assist agricultural enterprises in  acquiring seeds, fertilizers and diesel fuel. Instead, a compensation  system is introduced, which will be 60 thousand drams for each  hectare of land.