“Food security through arable lands and pastures improvement in Syunik and Vayots Dzor marzes” project
The International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education (ICARE) Foundation implements “Food security through arable lands and pastures improvement in Syunik and Vayots Dzor marzes” project with the delegation of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with the support of the ECOserve Armenia project of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ, GmbH).
ICARE Foundation is working hard to deliver maximum results for the project stakeholders, the farmers from Yeghegis and Sisian enlarged communities.
The project aims to assist farmers by providing sufficient volumes of food and fodder to ensure food security and reduce the pressure on pastures. The Project is being implemented in the settlements of Sisian and Yeghegis communities:
The project related activities in the targeted communities are being carried out in two main directions:
1. Food and fodder production by improving the arable land which have not been cultivated for
long time;
2. Improvement of degraded pastures.
Our current achievements are:
- over 261 farmers have been selected and involved in the project
- tillage services provided to the stakeholders; the works are still in progress. Over
451 ha completed already. - 27 tons of wheat seeds have been provided to the stakeholders for sawing on their lands
- degraded pastures of 30 ha pasture in Yeghegis enlarged community and 70 ha pasture in Sisian enlarged community are selected for improvement purposes.
Food and fodder production will improve arable lands, and soil conditions and ensure income for the farmers at least 3-4 years. Fodder production will reduce pressure on pastures and ensure natural regeneration and rehabilitation of the pastures. Its notable to mention that in the process of improving the degraded lands of these targeted communities, the project experts first time in Armenia will use drones for spreading the organic-origin fertilizes as nutrition in the pastures. This allows to cover even the lands, where the machinery has no access and the works completed manually will be expensive and of low efficiency, as well. Drones spraying will reduce fossil fuel, oil emissions as well. Later this practice can be used as replicable methods in other regions and communities.
The project team works with high motivation to assist farmers by providing sufficient volumes of fodder to reduce the pressure on pastures and ensure their sustainable use.