FRUITENIA, a four-year project officially launched in 2020,  marked its first anniversary.  Were the short-term goals set for the initial phase of the project achieved? We are saying, YES!
Despite the challenges and difficulties in 2020, the project team worked hard to ensure steady progress of the project in terms of its annual deliverables and objectives.
FRUTENIA team spared no efforts to achieve the best result possible and built the capacity for further processes and activities.

Here is the past year put in a nutshell.
In 2020 the FRUITENIA team started the establishment processes of the demonstrative intensive orchard, which is one of the strategic outcomes of the project. The intensive orchard should be standing out among other conventional fruit production orchards due to its modern and innovative solutions. These will enable the ANAU professors and students to be equipped with knowledge of non-traditional agricultural practices and will inspire our future generation to adopt suchlike approaches to enhance their productivity and support to manage the precious resources wisely. The most vivid activities carried out in 2020 were soil quality improvement works, the acquisition of new agricultural equipment, etc.

Soon, these videos will be available on Aygi.am, which is also another output of the project, and the website was launched late in 2020. FRUITENIA team urges you to stay tuned to get those materials that will update your knowledge and skills in this sector.

Last but not the least, the project also targeted women and the gender balance in the Agricultural sector using visuals. Particularly, a short video material was produced, where women of the sector shared their experience and advised the rest on how to succeed in Agriculture with a passion and enthusiasm.
FRUITENIA is funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation and implemented by ICARE Foundation.
The key beneficiary of the project is the Armenian National Agrarian University.

During the past year, the project team started making its first and crucial steps for modernizing the agronomy curricula of ANAU. Specifically, a number of focus group discussions, stakeholders, and expert meetings were organized to address the gaps between the current needs of the industry and the existing curriculum.
As a result of this and other activities, new subjects will be developed and included in the agronomy curriculum, and three of the existing subjects will be entirely modernized. It is noteworthy, that this process includes strong communication not only with the local but also international experts.
FRUITENIA is going towards its mission to increase the overall competitiveness of the Fruit Production sector in Armenia, hence it works with multiple dimensions.

In 2020, the FRUITENIA team started working on the short educational video materials in the Armenian Language, which will be provided to farmers, students, and other interested groups of people through diverse channels.