FAO in Armenia

FAO supports the efforts of Armenian Government aimed to develop vegetable breeding and seed systems in Armenia

20/02/2014

The inception workshop of “Development of the Vegetable Breeding and Seed Systems in Armenia” Project was organized by FAO in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Armenia.  Forty five participants from different organizations, scientific institutions, NGOs, as well as farmers and other stakeholders attended the event. The workshop was opened by Garnik Petrosyan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture; Avetik Nersisyan, FAO Plant Production and Protection Officer and Gayane Nasoyan, Assistant FAO Representative in Armenia. Garnik Petrosyan emphasized that the Project will significantly contribute to the sustainable development of vegetable production in Armenia particularly in terms of vegetable seed breeding and production. He was convinced that the project will provide/serve as basis for the development of sustainable certified seed production for the vegetable sector, based on local germplasm, and this will improve the yield and the quality of the harvest. The participants discussed the current situation in the field of vegetable production including breeding and seed systems in the country; presented and validated the problems and constraints related to the systems and received feedback from the stakeholders to fine-tune the project implementation. FAO activities in the field of Plant Production and Protection with the main emphasis on seed and PGR in Armenia were presented by Avetik Nersisyan. An introduction of the project, the strategic approaches and main stakeholders’ involvement in the project implementation was presented by FAO International Expert Jean-Louis Duval. The latter stressed that the implementation of this project should be “market driven” – based on the market demand and “bottom-top” meaning the regulations need to be at the services of the development of the vegetable market. The UN FAO “Development of the Vegetable Breeding and Seed Systems in Armenia” Project is financed by FAO and will be implemented by FAO in close cooperation with RA Ministry of Agriculture. One of the Project objectives is to support the country in strengthening the national institutional capacities to contribute to the sustainable development of vegetable production in Armenia based on local seed production. The total budget of the Project is USD 459,000.00.