On June 3, Yerevan hosted a discussion of Community Agricultural Resource Management and Competitiveness Project (CARMAC). The event, initiated by the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture, World Bank and Heifer International Armenia, brought together representatives of Armenia’s rural areas.

Armenian Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan attached importance to the project implementation, expressing hope that the project will be expanded, due to which around 100-110 communities will become its beneficiaries.

“The program is important for the development of livestock production, since the available resources in the field are used inefficiently and incompletely,” he said. Karapetyan added that only 10-20% of 1.2mln hectares of pastures are used in Armenia.

CARMAC is designed to improve productivity and sustainability of pasture-based livestock farms in 55 mountainous communities by increasing milk production, improving pasture management, and enhancing farm sales of livestock products. Total financing of the Project is USD 21.33mln, of which the Government of Armenia will finance US$ 5.33 million. 80,000 people will become beneficiaries of the project.