MAB 2nd year student Ella Aghababyan was awarded a 2nd category diploma for the scientific and analytic value of her paper, “Feasibility analysis of high-productivity wheat seed production in the Republic of Armenia” that she presented at the 71st annual international scientific student conference of the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy on March 20-23. The Conference was participated by 2500 students from more than 25 universities from Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Serbia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Slovakia, China, Kirgizstan, Armenia, and other countries.

Ella’s presentation explored the economic feasibility of wheat seed production in Shirak region of Armenia. The feasibility model has been built based on the range of stochastic exogenous variables relying on historical data analysis or expert opinion. The final choice has been made according to the key variables of NPV, payback period and also required price subsidy for the wheat seed sales price.

This year the conference was dedicated to the 130^th anniversary of prominent Russian/Soviet ag economist Alexander Chayanov who became one of the dozens of thousands of intellectuals who were victimized by Stalinism in 1937.