Armenian farmers affected by hail claim need to freeze loans

In Armenia, fallen hail took farmers of the Armavir Region of to the brink of survival. According to Rafik Khachatryan, the leader of the Mrgastan community, farmers are even unable to pay wages to their workers, and some local residents already think about leaving in search for work. It is too early to talk about compensation, since the activities are underway to assess the amount of damage, reported Ashot Arutyunyan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 12, strong hail affected farmland in a number of communities in the Armavir Region of Armenia. Ignati Arakelyan, Armenian Minister of Agriculture, has announced that his Ministry will not be able to fully compensate for the damage.

According to the Minister, full compensation will be possible only if the insurance system is implemented and anti-hail networks are installed.

Ashot Arutyunyan has noted that the residents affected by hail offer different options for compensation: to abolish water tax, land tax, fee for children's studies, to freeze bank loans, and so on.

Ashot Kagramanyan, Governor of the Armavir Region, has added that last year, the harvest of farmers was affected by hail. The authorities compensated them for fee for irrigation water.

Young crops of absolutely all villagers were destroyed by hail for 12 minutes, reports the Rafik Khachatryan, the leader of the Mrgastan community.

According to him, 232 families live in the village, and farming is the only source of their income.

This year, the harvest would be very rich, added Rafik Khachatryan. Only the sale of onions would bring his family the income of more than 4 million drams (more than 8000 US dollars).

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.