Friday, 15 April 2011
RA Prime Minister was introduced with the outputs of the “MCA-Armenia” projects
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, along with the ambassador of USA in Armenia Marie Yovanovitch, visited the stations of “MCA-Armenia” program in Aragatsotn. The visit marked the completion of three program components, i.e. rehabilitation of main canals and gravity systems under its Irrigation Infrastructure activity and completion of the farmer trainings under the Water-to-Market activity.
The first stop of the visit was the rehabilitated section of Arzni-Shamiram main canal passing through Karbi community where MCA-Armenia has restored about 25 km long segment and installed 75 hydro-technical structures. As a result, the residents of the community were given an opportunity to fully exploit the irrigation canal.
The CEO of the organization Ara Hovsepyan presented details about the ongoing construction work. He informed that that the rehabilitation works on 6 main canals and 5 gravity systems are completed. MCC's total investment in rehabilitation of 6 main canals is around 20 million USD, and 7.5 millions USD has been invested into the gravity systems.
Then Tigran Sargsyan and Marie Yovanovitch visited the tertiary canal in New Yedessia. The total investment in the rehabilitated of 2000 meter sections out of total 5300 meters of the overall tertiary canal system was 150.000 USD, 15% of which was co-funded by the community. The rehabilitated tertiary canal supplies irrigation water to 170 hectares of lands and serves 235 MCA-Armenia beneficiaries living in New Yedessia. It should be noted that MCA-Armenia is rehabilitating tertiary canals in over 90 Armenian communities. At the two communities of the region the head of the government was introduced to the issues concerning the farmers, answered their questions, particularly about the agricultural subsidies, irrigation water tariffs.
At New Yedessia the Prime Minister Sargsyan and U.S. Ambassador attended the event summarizing the results of the training component under the Water-to-Market activity. More than 45.000 farmers participated in the training courses aimed to the higher agricultural directions: they were introduced the irrigation technoliges and the modern agricultural maintenance methods.
When exchanging opinions, the prime minister inquired about the topics of the courses, the content of the provided material and the results of the applied technologies of the trained farmers.
At the end of the “MCA-Armenia” program on September 30, 2011, the contribution of the MCC, sponsored by the US government, to the sectors of RA agriculture and irrigation system will be around 180 million USD.
The project aims to reduce the rural poverty through a sustainable increase in the economic performance of Armenia’s agricultural sector, as well as to provide the farmers and managers in the irrigation system with financial support and advice.
