Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia plans to cover damage of farmers from hail with cash payments

ArmInfo. Until August of this year. Armenia could boast of a "favorable" statistics cataclysm of natural origin and damage suffered. But the recent natural disasters - a downpour with hail in Armavir, Shirak and Ararat oblasts - significantly "spoiled" these statistics.  Armenian Minister of Agriculture Artur Khachatryan told journalists on August 31, summing up his work as head of the department.

In particular, according to the Minister, in 2017, damage from natural disasters was estimated at 12 billion drams, in 2016 - 33 billion drams. Until August 2018, the damage was about 6 billion drams. "As soon as I reported to the Prime Minister that perhaps this year we will be able to avoid risks and huge damage from natural disasters, the next day, ironically, we heard about the city in the Armavir region," he said. The extent to which the damage suffered by farming has reached, Arthur Khachatryan refrains to call today.  According to him, it is possible to calculate the damage suffered in late September.

Nevertheless, as Khachatryan assured, the hurting farmers will be compensated for the losses. In this direction, as he said, an innovation is planned. "If, for example, earlier, Hovhannisyan Martiros received compensation for 50 thousand drams, and he owed the land tax of 15 thousand drams and 35 thousand payment for water, the whole amount was sent to repay the debt." Henceforth we plan to pay the farmer in cash, "- he pointed out.