Guaranteed harvest procurement is key to saving Armenian villages – Narek Karapetyan (Video)

The key to saving villages in Armenia is guaranteed harvest procurement, Narek Karapetyan, coordinator of the “Our Way” movement, stated during the presentation of Samvel Karapetyan’s economic program.
“I am convinced that state policy toward rural areas needs to change. Villages do not feel supported by the state; the state is largely absent,” he said.

Karapetyan described the challenges faced by farmers: “At the start of the year, a farmer looks at last year’s harvest prices, calculates expenses, takes out a loan, works hard all year, and then comes harvest time – he has to find a buyer. I have seen many desperate farmers who complete the entire cycle only to find no reliable buyer. When they finally do, the price is often halved, and they cannot recover their investment.”

He highlighted why rural living is becoming unprofitable: “Hundreds of millions are invested, modern barns are built, yet 200,000 dairy farms buy milk from farmers at just 110 drams. Why increase production if that’s the price you receive?”

Karapetyan proposed the creation of procurement stations to act as intermediaries between farmers and companies. “For example, buyers from the UAE could come to Armenia and work through a procurement station that collects harvests from the entire region and negotiates agreements. Procurement stations provide predictability. This way, farmers will no longer face the uncertainty of having their harvest at home with no buyer in sight,” he said.