ArmInfo. Armenia plans to expand cooperation with Germany in the field of agriculture. The Minister of Agriculture of Armenia, Ignaty Arakelyan, discussed the issues of deepening interaction and establishing new business ties on July 4 with the delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany headed by the parliamentary state secretary of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture Peter Blazer. The delegation also included representatives of state authorities and business circles.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ignaty Arakelyan expressed satisfaction with the interest of the German side in the sphere of agriculture in Armenia. "German business is known all over the world," the minister said. He expressed his readiness to deepen cooperation in potentially promising areas of agriculture.
The head of the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture presented the priorities of the Armenian government to the German guests in the agrarian sector, told about the vision of the country's authorities in the development of the industry. He stressed that at this stage, special attention is paid to the introduction of agro-insurance, the process of digitizing agriculture, attracting available financial resources to the sphere, as well as training qualified personnel. The most important areas of cooperation, according to Arakelyan, may be the sphere of animal husbandry, seed production, viticulture and winemaking. The Minister named the creation of refrigeration facilities, the laying of intensive fruit gardens, the introduction of modern irrigation methods and anti-hail networks as promising areas for cooperation. In addition, Ignaty Arakelyan offered to participate in programs for the provision of agricultural machinery in leasing and the creation of machine and tractor stations.
Peter Blazer, in turn, noted the importance of establishing partnerships in the field of agriculture. He invited the head of the Ministry of Agriculture to participate in the global forum of food and agriculture, which will be held in Germany in January 2018.
To note, starting from 2018 Armenia plans to implement a pilot program on agro-insurance, as well as installation of anti-hail networks. Earlier, on November 21, 2016, on the margins of the next meeting of the Armenian-German commission on financial and technical cooperation in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic, the German side expressed its readiness to provide additional grant funds of 1 million EUR for the introduction of agricultural insurance in Armenia. As the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Armenia Armen Harutyunyan stated then, within 2 years the Armenian side was cooperating with the German development bank KFW. Based on this, in 2017 it is planned to develop a pilot program, as well as bring it in line with the requirements of the legislative field. The program will focus on insurance of profitable lines of agriculture, he said. Meanwhile, years earlier KfW already provided 400 thousand EUR for the development of the concept of agricultural insurance for Armenia and Georgia. The results of this work, which KfW entrusted to hold one of the "close" to itself international consulting companies, the participants of the insurance market of Armenia did not see. The Ministry of Agriculture then informed ArmInfo that they are also unfamiliar with the results of these studies. The KfW office in Yerevan refused to meet with ArmInfo on this issue.