On 21-24 August 2018, Town Hall workshops were held in 3 marzes of Armenia, Armavir, Gegharkunik and Vayots Dzor. The purpose of the workshops was to identify the main issues in the agriculture sector.
There were 265 participants at the workshop involved in various agriculture value chains, such as farmers, members of agricultural cooperatives, representatives from the marz administration and the marz body of the Agricultural Development Foundation, as well as the Food Safety State Inspectorate.
The meetings were initiated by the Agricultural Alliance of Armenia and the International Center for Human Development in the scope of the “Participatory Policies – Sustainable Agriculture” sub-grant project which is funded by the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project financed by the European Union.
“The purpose of these meetings was to learn about the problems from the sector representatives themselves. Overall, more than 300 recommendations and problems were collected by our partner ICHD experts in each marz. They will be edited by our experts and will eventually be submitted to the Government or other stakeholders as concept documents,” noted Vadim Uzunyan, the Coordinator of the “Participatory Policies – Sustainable Agriculture” sub-grant project.
Vadim Uzunyan also noted that the selection of the marzes had not been accidental, too.
“The selection of the marzes is conditioned by the fact that we want to identify the agriculture management peculiarities in four different climatic zones: in Armavir, a plain area, Gegharkunik, a high mountainous area, Shirak, a mountainous area, and Vayots Dzor, a pre-mountainous area.”
Minister of Agriculture Arthur Khachatryan also met with the participants of the workshop in Yeghegnadzor, and they asked him questions, raising issues pertaining to irrigation water, medication, agricultural credits, agricultural machinery and cooperatives.
On 11 September, another Town Hall workshop will be organised, in order to identify the agricultural problems of the Shirak marz.
The “Participatory Policies – Sustainable Agriculture” project is implemented in the scope of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project funded by the European Union, through 7 member organisations of the Agricultural Alliance of Armenia: “OxYGen” Foundation, International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education, VISTAA Expert Center Advisory NGO, “SHEN” Charitable NGO, Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development (CARD) Foundation, ProMedia-Gender NGO, “Irazek” Community Development Support NGO.
