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Knar Babayan

The Ups and Downs of Tobacco Farming in Artsakh; This Year’s Drought Cut into Profits

Only 11 of the 50 workers at the Masis Tobacco collection center in the Ivanyan (former Khojalou) community in the Askeran region of Artsakh have full-time jobs.

The rest are seasonal workers. Most are women from the communities of Ivanyan and Noragyugh. They make around 75,000 AMD (US$172) per month.

Masis Tobacco opened the plant in 2010, after conducting research as to where tobacco could be grown.

The women, bundled up warmly to brave the winter cold, are sorting the dried tobacco placed on a long table. Some wear masks to ward off the tobacco odor.

Vyacheslav Nazaryan, a technician at the plant, tells me that the workers have been advised regarding the health risks from handling the tobacco leafs. He said that the company compensates workers for all medical bills if they get sick.

Today, one can see tobacco plants clustering the fields on both sides of the Stepanakert-Martouni road passing through Agn (formerly Aghdam).

58 year-old Arega Vardanyan, from the village of Ashan, has been picking tobacco in these fields for the past five years. She says wearing a face mask and gloves is a must when picking the leaves from the top of the plant on down.

“I also work as a cleaning attendant at the village school. But if it wasn’t for the tobacco job, I’d be hard pressed to take care of my six children. My husband is a tractor driver. His salary isn’t enough to feed our large family,” Mrs. Vardanyan tells me.

Yurik Azaryan, from the village of Berdashen, was one of the first who planted an experimental field of tobacco. Today, he and a village partner, have a 13 hectare tobacco field. To plant the seedlings, they employ around twenty villagers from Berdashen and Ashan. Come harvest time, they only need 15 workers, mostly women, who earn 5,000 AMD ($11.50) daily.

“The first year was good in terms of income. This year, however, the drought caused much damage. In some fields we haven’t gotten around to the fall planting. Then there’s the fact that every fourth year, the fields have to be planted with something else,” Azaryan explains, adding that tobacco farming would be a decent income producer if there was adequate irrigation.

Tobacco farmer Andranik Alaverdyan, isn’t putting all his eggs in one basket.

“If we didn’t have the pomegranate and grape orchards, I would have ended the year with a loss from tobacco. They’ve promised to bring in irrigation so that we continue growing tobacco. That’s good,” says Alaverdyan, who emphasizes the importance on the regulated work of the collection plant.

Artak Ghahramanyan, who heads the Masis Tobacco collection plant in Ivanyan, claims that it is operating according to schedule.

“If we haven’t accepted a farmer’s tobacco, it’s because the crop hadn’t sufficiently ripened. Our specialists visit the fields and we only purchase tobacco on their say so,” Ghahramanyan tells me.

Despite this claim, tobacco growers complained to Artsakh Prime Minister Arayik Haroutyunyan at a recent meeting that the plant has been making excuses for not purchasing their product.

Masis Tobacco Executive Director Hovhannes Tadevosyan, who was also present at the meeting, begged to differ, arguing that the collection center has a capacity of 200 hectares of raw material and that only 75 hectares of tobacco is being cultivated in Artsakh.

Tadevosyan says that the company will continue to invest in Artsakh’s tobacco sector even though it’s not profitable.

“As for those who have suffered due to the drought, the issue is being discussed and we’ll try to help them out as best we can,” Tadevosyan says.

In addition, the company provides seedlings at a very inexpensive price to the growers. Come planting time, Masis Tobacco also assist with labor costs and diesel fuel expenses. Growers compensate the company with product.

To help spur development of the tobacco farming sector, the Artsakh government has started to reopen artesian wells dating back to the Soviet era.

Prime Minister Haroutyunyan recently told community mayors in the Martouni region that Masis Tobacco will soon open a collection center in the town of Martouni.

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