Armenia plans to raise grain self-sufficiency to 70-75% by 2020 – minister

The government developed a program to boost seed production, particularly for wheat, in 2010, and great achievements have been made since then, the minister said. 

The program helped raise the country’s grain self-sufficiency from 33% in 2010 up to 52% in 2014. 

The land under cereal production has increased by 30,000 hectares in Armenia over the last four years, the minister said. Area under cereal crops totaled 189,000 hectares in 2014, of them 106,000 hectares under wheat crops. Harvested cereal crops amounted to 590,000 tons in 2014, of them 336,000 were wheat crops. Production output grew by 84%. 

Wheat yield per hectare has increased from 21.6 centners to 32.3 centners, leading to increase in population’s income, Karapetyan said. 

It is an ongoing program as it provides good results, the minister said. 

“We have already provided 2,300 tons of barley seeds to farmers for spring sowing, 200 tons of medick seeds, 300 tons of sainfoin seeds and 30 tons of corn seeds for spring sowing,” Karapetyan said. 

Earlier reports said 667 million 814,000 drams will be appropriated for grain seed imports from Russia to provide assistance to farmers. The seeds will be provided to farmers at a cost 50% lower than the market price. –0--