26 Sep 2015
FAO and CARD support application and introduction of Conservation Agriculture And No-till technology in Armenia
On September 10, 2015 in Tashir, Lori region a workshop on “Conservation Agriculture and No-till technology application perspectives in the Republic of Armenia and Good Agricultural Practices of Cereals Production” was held within the framework of the “ENPARD Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Armenia” project implemented by FAO and “Sustainable Agriculture Value Chain Development” project implemented by CARD Foundation with participation of representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, scientific centres, Agricultural Support Marz Centres, Lori Regional Administration, farmers and other stakeholders.
The workshop aimed at introducing the advantages of new conservation agriculture systems, as well as minimum and no-till soil cultivation technologies, present the good agricultural practices of cereals production applied by “Bozoyan” LLC, advanced technologies of applied No-till farming and grain storage.
During the workshop the FAO ENPARD project manager Mr. Vahan Amirkhanyan and FAO agriculture expert Mr. Armen Zakaryan made presentations. The representative from “John Deere” Mr. Vahan Ghazaryan introduced the international experience of applying Conservation Agriculture, as well as the modern agricultural techniques used during No-till farming.
The International AID/Cooperation officer Mr. John Barker mentioned: “There are 3 main parts to the ENPARD project. In the first phase 20 million EURO was given as a support to the budget of Armenia and the idea was to be able to help farmers. The second part is what we see today. It’s support which is given through FAO and the idea is partly to help the Ministry of Agriculture to improve its efficiency and its structure and also to help farmers to get better advice through the advisory service and through CARD and be able to benefit from new ideas. The third part of ENPARD is concentrating mainly on the very small farmers, because we have so many of them in Armenia”.
At the end of the workshop the participants were presented the wheat seeding activities carried out by No-till technology.