GAS PRICE CAUSED FERTILIZER INCREASE
Support A1+!The impact of the gas price increase on the RA agriculture is already evident. The price of the necessary fertilizer improved mainly from Georgia, Russia and Ukraine has gone up.
“The increase is unprecedented,” the Chief of the Plant Cultivation, Forest and Plant Protection Board of the RA Ministry of Agriculture Garnik Petrosyan announced while speaking of the nitrogen fertilizer high price. As a result of this increase the price of one fertilizer bag may become from 5000 – 5200 AMD and even more. Taking into account the financial state of the Armenian peasants the Government decided to subsidize the fertilizer importers so that the imported and increased fertilizer is sold in the Armenian market with the prices of last year. The process of subsidization was realized at the expense of 294 million AMD. As a result, the fertilizer will be sold to the farmers with the former price – 74 thousand AMD per a ton.
The observations of the Agricultural Ministry revealed that the-quantity of autumn sowing in 2005 decreased about 20 – 24 thousand acres in comparison with the previous year. This is determined by the vacillation of grain prices as a result of which the peasant either had a little income from the cultivated land or a loss at the end of the year.
“There seems to be certain stabilization in the market,” says Mr. Petrosyan who foresees that, willingly or unwillingly, there will be procurement price increases by Russia and Ukraine. In order to soften the effects of the increase the works of spring sowing have already started in the Republic. The survey of the Ministry revealed that the lands of spring grain cultivation will increase by 15 thousand acres in comparison with the previous year.
The lands of corn cultivation outnumber the quantity of the previous year in all marzes of the country. By the way, yesterday many lands lay under snow because of the snowstorm, but according to the Ministry there aren’t cases of freezing so far. The Ministry is concerned with the coming overflowing which is foreseen in April and May. But the Ministry takes measures to combat it.
