Machine and tractor stations to be created in Armenia

ArmInfo. A state company will  be established in Armenia to provide agricultural communities with  agricultural equipment. Minister of Agriculture Ignati Araqelyan told  ArmInfo correspondent. "The new enterprise will create state machine  and tractor stations (MTS), which will provide mechanized services  for those farms that are not able to purchase machinery and tractors  even on a leasing basis. These stations will serve small farms,  providing them with mechanizing services", the minister said.

To recall, today at a meeting of the government it was decided to  approve the project of granting state subsidies for lending on a  leasing basis to the country's farms. As Ignati Araqelyan noted today  at a government meeting, according to the program, farmers will have  an opportunity to purchase agricultural machinery in leasing at a  rate of 2% per annum. Another 7% will be subsidized by the state. As  a result, it is expected that in 2017 about 2.2 billion AMD will be  allocated for the purchase of agricultural machinery.  150 million  AMD will be directed to the first operations on subsidizing interest  rates from the Government Reserve Fund.

In reality, as Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan stressed in his  speech, 2.2 billion AMD will be directed to the project, but much  more, as the main goal of the government will be to create conditions  for the development of agricultural production. The prime minister  noted that a separate company will be created, which will directly  address this issue. According to Araqelyan, the prime minister spoke  about the state company for the development of the MTS.