ArmInfo. In 2020, Armenian agriculture will be able to break through a positive trend and ensure growth after a long decline registered in the previous years. Answering the question of ArmInfo correspondent, Armenian Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan stated this at a January 14 press conference.
However, according to him, to ensure long-term growth, the state needs to work to increase the efficiency of use of resources, in particular land. "In the case of inefficient use of resources, even the use of the latest technologies will have a limited impact on increasing efficiency in the industry," he said.
In this regard, Khachtaryan recalled the "Land Bank" project, the concept of which is currently under consideration by the RA government. In particular, the head of the economic department noted that the project provides for electronic mapping of lands indicating their owners. The second component relates to legislative regulations, since it involves the creation of an information base and the introduction of a land monitoring system to determine their status (whether they are used). If land is determined to be unused, then applying legislative levers, the government will have the right to oblige a particular landowner to either use these agricultural lands for their intended purpose, or transfer them to another interested person on the basis of a lease, or sell them.
Using official data, the Minister noted that according to the results of 11 months of 2019, a decrease of 4% was registered in the agriculture of the Republic of Armenia. In this vein, Khachatryan emphasized that the agricultural sector of Armenia will end the year 2019 with indicators inferior to 2018. <I believe that 2020 will be better for agriculture, but the results of our policy will be tangible in the long run>,- he said.
To recall, since 2016, the agricultural sector of Armenia has been showing a decline. In particular, in 2016, the decline was recorded at 5%, in 2017 - 2.9%, and by the end of 2018 - by 7.3% .