Armenian agriculture ministry forecasts poor grape crops this year

Armenia’s agriculture ministry forecasts poor grape crops in 2017, the country's agriculture minister Ignati Araqelyan said.

He noted that the poor crop was caused by natural disasters – hail, frost etc, which have stricken hard especially at vineyards and apple gardens.

The situation barred farmers from carrying out the necessary season job in 2017, and this means that grape crops will be poor also the next year.   

Araqelyan said that the problem solution will be a long-lasting process. The minister pointed out agricultural insurance as one of the ways to solve the problem. 

“We already have a signed agreement, and in 2018 we, jointly with KfW Bank will launch a pilot project, and its successful implementation will allow us to apply the system all over the country,” ARKA cited him as saying.