Armenia plans to expand cooperation with Germany in the field of agriculture

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.