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Grisha Balasanyan

Griboyedov Village Farmers: "The Minister of Agriculture Needs a Reality Check"

Hovhannes Jamalyan is a farmer in the Armavir Marz village of Griboyedov who’s decided to set up a hothouse operation on a plot of land near his house.

He’s like many others in the village who have turned to this method of growing fruits and vegetables due to the scarcity of irrigation water.

I recently visited his operation and Hovhannes said he already had a crop of cucumbers for sale but the market price was ridiculously low. It’s so low that he can’t even pay for the cost of the seed.

Hovhannes told me that before the growing season started he had taken loans from friends and the bank to buy the seed, plastic sheeting, fertilizer and other items needed. He’s slowly paying off the loans

The hothouse farmer said he can’t even sell a kilo of cucumbers at 40 AMD. No wonder that he’s stopped shelling out for plant medicines that go for 20,000 AMD per dose.

“I’ve invested about 350,000 AMD on the cucumbers alone. If I could only sell about 100-150,000 AMD worth to cover half my initial outlay and have some money to live on,” Hovhannes said.

Not having a car, he can’t take his produce to market himself. A daily transportation cost to reach the Malatya market is 5,000 AMD and that doesn’t include the fee for a market stall.

Even if he could afford a place at the market, the rules set a definite time for when village farmers have to vacate the market and turn their spots over to resellers. Hovhannes figures it would be a waste of time and money to sell his produce at the market, so he sells when he grows from home.

To show just how costly hothouse farming can be, Hovhannes said that the family’s gold jewellery had to be put up as collateral to get a 75,000 loan from the bank. The money was used to purchase the pesticide/insecticide sprayer seen in the photo.

Hovhannes says that an Armenian from Georgia recently told him that Armenian customs charges 130 AMD for each kilo of cucumbers coming from Georgia. He points to this fact as to why farm produce in Armenia is so cheap. Produce isn’t being brought into Armenia from neighboring Georgia due to the high tariffs.

Griboyedov acting mayor Anahit Keshish-Ghoukasyan said that many residents were fleeing the village and the country because of the unpaid debts that have accumulated.

“Go to some of the neighboring villages and you’ll see that they are growing all kinds of produce. They don’t have a water problem. Here, we can only plant wheat and alfalfa. There’s no crop rotation. Those who have set up hothouses can’t sell their produce at normal prices,” said the acting mayor.

She added that fish farms are another factor leading to the desiccation of the land. Deep wells are being dug and the underground water supply is being exploited.

More and more villagers have given up on making a living from farming, she notes, and says that land tax collections are falling as a result. People are paying what little they have to pay off their loans.

The acting mayor says that the people at the top, the government, need to focus more on the issues affecting people at the bottom.

According to her estimates, 150 residents have already left the village and their numbers are increasing.

“When our agriculture minister gives a speech we say to ourselves ‘does he have a clue regarding the conditions we average folk face on a daily basis.’ I mean to say he should be better informed about what we get back for all our sweat and work,” says Keshish-Ghoukasyan.

She believes that the new generation needs to be more demanding for anything to change.

The acting mayor is guardedly optimistic towards the future and believes that the younger generations will become more outspoken and demanding vis-a-vis the government.

She adds that it will take some time for people to change however. 

Comments (3)

karen
Ekeq varung@ tankacnenq!
karen
Ekeq pomidorn el tankacnenq!
zohrab
being in goverment has great responsibilities its not a question of just being in goverment and thats it.all over the world farmers are subsidized to help them get on in life and after all they feed the nation.if we dont support them teach them show them eventually they will leave.

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