On October 18, State Minister of the Republic of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan convened a consultation over agriculture in Berdzor and several other topics related to the development of the region. The State Minister was accompanied by Minister of Agriculture of the Artsakh Republic Zhirayr Mirzoyan and Director of the Foundation for Support to Villages and Agriculture Ashot Bakhshiyan. Among the participants were leaders of communities of Kashatagh region, field-related representatives and large farmers.

As reported the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Government of the Republic of Artsakh to Hayern Aysor, the representative of the agriculture department of the region delivered a speech in which it was mentioned that, upon the instruction of the head of the administration, a headquarters has been set up to manage all the activities for the autumn harvest on time in an organized manner. Touching upon the indicators of the passing year, the speaker stressed the fact that the Kashatagh region is still the leader in terms of production of the gross products in the republic. Out of the 20 planted seeds, 20,052 hectares have been reaped from the 207 hectares, the gross products of which made up 55,817 tons.

Harutyunyan viewed the results as satisfactory and stated that, taking into consideration the current great potential of agriculture in the region, there is still a lot of work to do. “We will soon launch two pilot projects in Kashatagh region with state funding. The first project is the opening of state-of-the-art milk production outlets in the northern and southern wings that will also promote the development of cattle-raising in the region. The second project is the provision of devices for the preparation of dried fruits in the northern wing where there is a problem with the sale of various types of fruits. Afterwards, all the types of products will be purchased with government support,” the State Minister said and added that there is also a plan to create modern refrigerator economies in which the residents will have the opportunity to maintain their crops and sell them for higher prices in the market in the winter.

During the meeting, Harutyunyan also touched upon the issue of repatriation and stated that the government is planning on revitalizing its repatriation program in the region and assigned the head of the administration of the region to inventorize the houses that can be rebuilt. Harutyunyan also stated that the government is planning on building hundreds of new homes within different communities of the region in order to promote repatriation.

During the consultation, Arayik Harutyunyan also answered questions of the attendees’ concern.