Armen Poghosyan, President of the Armenian Consumers' Association, stated today that ridership in the Yerevan Metro had fallen by 10-20% after the recent price hike from 50 to 100 AMD.

Mr. Poghosyan confessed that these numbers were based on polls taken by the association and thus not totally accurate.

He also argued that the number of Yerevan residents using the much maligned "micro-vans" to get around town had also shrunk from 90% to 75%.

The consumer advocate declared that the current transportation system in the Armenian capital benefits 18-28 individuals who own the routes and that the rest of us are forced to suffer as a result.

"These individuals are either MP's or other government officials," he said.

Mr. Poghosyan made the case for greater financing of an electric-based transportation system that would wean us off of various fuels.

Vazgen Safaryan, the other press conference speaker, who heads the Public Goods Producers' Union and is President of the Public Council's Finance and Budgetary Committee, called on the government to establish collective agricultural operations in the country's rural regions.

He said that villagers didn't have the means to sell their produce directly to consumers and were forced to sell to resellers.

Mr. Safaryan said that of the 449,000 hectares of cultivable land, some 165,000 wasn't cultivated last year.

"Agriculture lacks a sufficient labor force. The government must take steps to spur this sector. We do not understand, for example, why villagers must pay for the water they use," he said.