Expert predicts 25 percent drop in Armenian wheat output

YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. An expert in agriculture predicted today a 20-25 percent drop in this year’s Armenian wheat output saying one of the reasons was that elite wheat seeds brought in by the government from Russia and distributed to farmers appeared to mismatch with local climatic conditions.

Speaking at a news conference, Hrachya Berberian, who is chairman of a non-governmental organization called Association of Farmers, said because of low wheat spike farmers can not use harvesters on around 8,000 hectares of land under wheat.

He further argued that before importing thousands of tons of Russian wheat seeds the authorities should have tested it for three years in Armenia, which was not done.

"It was a professional error, and the ‘perpetrators’ must be punished," said Berberian, calling for setting up an ad hoc commission that must include also farmers who have appeared in a hopeless situation to make an inquiry into this problem.

He also said that his organization has asked the president to help exempt farmers from paying for irrigation water, and provide them with free seeds next year.

Earlier, agriculture minister Sergo Karapetyan said the government expected that by 2014 the country would achieve self-sufficiency in grain and abandon imports. Officials said at that time that Armenian farmers should be able to meet more than half of the demand already in 2013, when domestic wheat production was expected to rise to 350,000 tons. According to official data, grain output last year was 35% higher than in 2010 securing a 39 percent self-sufficiency.

Armenia annually consumes up to 650,000 tons of food grains and relies on import for nearly two thirds of its grain consumption.-0-