Former Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Armenia, Ashot Harutyunyan, issued a grave warning about the state of the country’s agricultural sector. At a meeting with journalists on August 27, he outlined the challenges faced by Armenian agriculture.
According to Harutyunyan, systemic problems began to emerge in the second half of 2018 when the government decided to dissolve the Ministry of Agriculture, incorporating it into the Ministry of Economy. Since then, the situation has only worsened, affecting all aspects of agricultural production—from cultivation to harvesting and marketing, he believes.
Harutyunyan is particularly concerned about the situation with wheat production. He provided the following figures: in the fall of 2022, the area sown with wheat was 71,400 hectares, but by the fall of 2023, it had decreased to 56,500 hectares, a reduction of 15,000 hectares. The wheat harvest in 2023 amounted to 177,000 tons, but this was insufficient to meet the country's needs.
The self-sufficiency level of wheat has dropped to a critically low point of 27.9 percent. As a result, in 2023, Armenia was forced to import 465,000 tons of wheat, 24,000 tons more than the previous year, he explained.
The former deputy minister also highlighted the growing losses in agricultural production. In 2022, wheat losses amounted to 35,700 tons, and forage losses to 105,000 tons. In 2023, the situation worsened, with wheat losses increasing by 10,000 tons and forage losses by 117,500 tons.
Harutyunyan warned that the data for 2024 could be even more disheartening, partly due to the damage caused by rodents to crops. The expert emphasized the urgent need for measures to stabilize the agricultural sector in Armenia and improve the country's food security.
BMG reminds that the agricultural sector in Armenia produced 948 billion drams (over $2.4 billion) in 2023, a decrease of 0.3% compared to the previous year.
