On July 2, 2021, a meeting was organized under the lead of the RA Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan, and the aim of the meeting was to find through discussions possible ways to modernize irrigation systems, expand the state assistance programs, introduce irrigation systems, identify existing problems and find solutions.

About twenty contractors, producers, suppliers, and farmers involved in the irrigation process took part in the discussion.

Arman Khojoyan, while emphasizing the main purpose of the meeting, attributed importance to the more massive applicability of irrigation systems in Armenia.

“Due to the high temperature at the impact of climate change, problems can always arise in the process of water use and irrigation. It is necessary that we become able to adapt, make modern technologies more accessible and massively used, and ensure their applicability in our reality”, he said.

The Deputy Minister informed that the RA Government is ready to provide support through the state assistance programs to find solutions to existing problems, adding that a program is already in the design stage, according to which farmers will be exempted from irrigation water fees for the next three years in case drip irrigation systems are applied.

Such meetings and discussions are important to collect information on the problems, obstacles in the irrigation system and expectations from the state. Due to the information collected, the state will be able to offer appropriate technological solutions to farmers and villagers, so that a better result can be achieved in a short period of time by joint efforts than it has been done so far.

During the evolving discussion, a number of issues were singled out, including the necessity to build water reservoirs and increase the volume of water storage, improper use of drip irrigation systems, the suitability of water for irrigation purposes, the problem of water filtration, lack of quality pipes, the problem of proper distribution and accessibility of water, lack of specialists, land fragmentation and the necessity of their consolidation, lack of electricity and a number of other key sectoral issues.

Among the issues raised was the lack of awareness of farmers and villagers about modern irrigation systems and their applicability. Emphasizing the importance of raising awareness and the problem of access to information, the Deputy Minister said that an informational program series on various topics of agriculture will be soon filmed on the initiative of the Ministry. The program series aims to not only raise public awareness on various issues of agriculture, but also provide useful professional information to those engaged in agriculture.

At the end of the meeting Arman Khojoyan noted that proposals will be integrated to take practical steps.

Issues of building water reservoirs, night water collection, construction of private water reservoirs and state assistance for that matter were discussed, and solution options were outlined.

The meeting participants noted that improvement of the irrigation system will contribute to not only saving of water resources, but also to increased yielding. As a result of the discussion, implementation of programs on building large and small water reservoirs, subsidy programs, and other state assistance programs promoting the introduction of a drip irrigation system were considered priority in agriculture sector.