Armenian government amends debts of farmers in the amount of 800 million AMD for fertilizers, seeds and diesel fuel

ArmInfo. The government of  Armenia amends the debts of farmers in the amount of 800 million AMD  for fertilizers, seeds and diesel fuel - for the first and last time.  On December 7, at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of the  Republic, a draft decision was approved, according to which the state  assistance program will forgive debts for seeds given to farmers for  2011- 2016, as well as for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium  fertilizers granted to farmers for 2015-2016.

As the Minister of Agriculture Ignaty Arakelyan explained, the  financial obligations of farmers were accumulated as a result of  natural disasters - hail and frost. "On the basis of complaints  received from land users, as well as within the instructions of the  President and the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Agriculture is  proposing to write off the debt in the amount of 800 million AMD,"  the minister said. Already after the government meeting, in an  interview with journalists, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture  announced that for the year 2017, payment under these programs was  carried out in time and there are no delays.  Meanwhile, there was a  cardinal revision of the payment scheme for the delivered goods -  fertilizers, seeds and diesel fuel, from postpaid to payment at the  time of delivery of the goods. The villager is currently turning to  the business entity, and further, in accordance with the request and  the main solvency, the farmer is provided with the product. This year  the government continued to subsidize purchases, in 2018 it is  planned to suspend subsidies for diesel fuel and fertilizers. The  issue with seeds, as the minister noted, has not yet been resolved.  As a result of changes in the current year compared with the year  2016, the demand for fertilizers did not decrease, diesel fuel and  seeds, even in conditions of maintaining subsidies, did not enjoy  last year's demand. Recall that on September 14 at a government  meeting, Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan said that the  decision was made to cede debts to farmers for debts for 2012-2016.  and start relations with the villagers from scratch. "The practice of  2017 shows that the process can be organized in a way that does not  accumulate debts," he said. In this regard, the prime minister  instructed the governors of the provinces to compile the final lists  of debtors within a month's time and submit them to the Ministry of  Territorial Administration and Development. After that, the Ministry  of Agriculture will sum up the results and submit proposals on  mechanisms for writing off debts within a week. Henceforth, as  Karapetyan stated, the government will strictly follow the process  and without intermediaries - directly with the addressee. "The  mechanism for writing off old debts will not become a tradition, we  agree on new rules of the game and move forward," the prime minister  said. In the meantime, as the Minister of Territorial Administration  and Development David Lokyan noted, not all rural elders  appropriately distributed seeds to farmers, or collected money, but  it did not reach its destination. "The problem is also that some  debtors left the country, because of this we have a shortage of 12%,"  Lokyan said. "These elderly people in the localities? Well,  everything, get them," the prime minister said, urging that the new  list not be very different from what was available.