Public Council of Armenia proposes to create rural cooperatives

PanARMENIAN.Net -
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan met with representatives of the Public Council of Armenia. The meeting focused on two main issues introduction of cooperatives in agriculture, Internet accessibility and rates.



According to the public Council member Khosrov Harutyunyan, since Armenia’s independence large-scale investments have been implemented in country’s agriculture, a huge work aimed to modernize the infrastructure in this sphere has been done. ''Unfortunately, all these investments do not yield the desired results. All actors involved in agriculture still remain at the state they were in 1993-1994," Khosrov Harutyunyan said.



After privatization there are about 339 thousand rural households, and the government has to work with all of them, he said. Unsuccessful conditions of separate farms cannot contribute to the dynamic development of that sphere. The Public Council offers to peasants and farmers to unite in rural cooperatives. "Cooperation does not mean collectivization, now individual farmers can unite their efforts to meet challenges together, since agriculture involves a lot of risk," he said.



The Public Council proposes to make radical changes in the government policy in relation to agriculture. "We believe that this area should become a priority for the government. The Government of Armenia should take steps to improve the situation in rural areas and living conditions of peasants, he stressed.



Vladimir Movsisyan, a member of the Public Council of Armenia, urged the audience not to overestimate the role of cooperatives in agriculture, stressing their voluntarily character.



According to the RA minister of agriculture Gerasim Alaverdyan, the strategy for the sustainable development of agriculture for 2006-2015 year was submitted to the Public Council. The President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan wrapping up the discussions stressed that cooperation in agriculture should be considered only as a measure or method, and not the only way to solve the problems. The state should encourage all steps in that direction, the president assured.