Trendy clothes and elite seeds are not salvation

The Communist Party is not excited with the attention paid by the cabinet to agriculture

 The leader of the Communist Party of Armenia has no positive feelings about “the cabinet” look at countryside and agriculture. Ruben Tovmasyan sees a fictional, artificial, accentuating-his-personality kind of thing in the longing of this cabinet to rescue the countryside.  This is not the first impression, but these are steps taken by some cabinet officers with no actual plan and because of the president’s order to rescue the domestic countryside and agriculture. “The president put his thoughts very nicely, after which the people who are perceived to be politicians and agronomists have been dressing tidily and have been repeating the president’s sayings in front of the camera. It is just a subject for them to talk on. Whereas if they want to make the farmer’s work more productive they should never consider agriculture separately as a branch of the state economy, despite its percentage in the country’s GDP. Agriculture has to be considered along with the industry, or else there will be no productivity”, says our interlocutor recalling the agricultural experience of the Soviet times, when around 13 thousand tractors, around 12 thousand combines, ploughing-reaping and other kinds of tractors, the parking for tractors worked very well. “In the conditions of absence of all the above-mentioned and presence of this kind of shameful privatization of the land they cannot ever achieve any success. There is no need to make those subjects the lecture subjects again – we have heard lots of lectures for many years, but there is no move forward.” Our interlocutor reminds once again that as a result of this kind of “professorial” approach the border villages are nearly empty now, mass of youngsters leaves villages and the old people wear the clothes bought in Soviet times. In the background of the ruined roads, the signs with the names of villages written on them in English are particularly noticeable.

The first secretary of the CPA (Communist Party of Armenia) CC (Central Committee) is also indignant at the non-stop advertised cabinet decisions, according to which they provide the farmers with loans with low interest rates, whereas they demand houses and gold in return for that. “This is just mocking, to say the least. Poor farmer has been robbed for 20 years – what can he pawn now? There are villages, where they slaughter the cattle not to pay for the loans – is this help? Only unaware groups of people can rule the agriculture in a blind way like this.” The Communist Party perceived the president’s urge to stand by the farmer this way – the village headmen and heads of regions have to make proposals concerning concrete local issues, and the president has to have his personal advisers on agricultural issues in every region, who will do their job instead of making speeches in front of the camera, in the background of villages. “Instead of that the crushed farmers cry buckets and we organize assemblies and putting on trendy suits, ties and glasses make speeches. That will develop no agriculture, however elite seeds or cattle you bring. One must take into consideration that Armenia is mountainous – those “elites” are not appropriate for our mountains. Talking about cultivation, pesticides, and fertilizers does not lower their prices. Dramatic and actual state interference is needed. The land insurance issue should be solved in order to protect farmer from hail, drought, and freeze.” By the way, the communist Party believes that the production of grains and grain products is particularly important and is number one priority for Armenia, especially since it is actually in the war. Tovmasyan draws attention to the fact that in the Soviet period, the lands perceived arid such as village of Panik in Artik region, village of Dzitankov in Ani region, village of Hovuni in Akhuryan region and some villages on Ararat Plain produced 60 quintals out of one hectare of land. Comrade Tovmasyan has no personal ambition or pretension, but he thinks that there is something rational in what he says, and if noticed by the governmental organs he is ready to thoroughly present the bases.