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Mistakes are corrected during decades

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  • Mistakes are corrected during decades

    Azat Artsakh - Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
    May 1, 2004

    MISTAKES ARE CORRECTED DURING DECADES

    This person who had direct contribution to the success in the sphere
    of agriculture of the region is more than anyone interested in the
    current problems of agriculture. Having retired already he,
    nevertheless, attentively follows the development of this sphere.
    According to the evaluation of the specialist, in the post-war decade
    the biggest mistake in this sphere was rapid dissolution of the
    collective farms. "This process caused terrible disorder," mentioned
    Edward Gasparian with pain, "we forgot about seed-farming, shift of
    crops, breeding of new varieties, storing. We reached a point when
    grass was brought from Armenia, whereas we cannot use effectively the
    fertile areas in our country. There is no market at all. The retailers
    are dominating. The collective farmers received nothing of the
    collective farms which they created for decades. The agricultural
    machines were dispersed thus dealing a serious blow to agriculture.
    Today we need to obtain new machines of low power, as Armenia does."
    Listening to my observation that there is, nevertheless, certain
    progress in the sphere in the last years to which statistical data
    testify, Ed. Gasparian cheered up, "Yes, I am acquainted with those
    data, they are on my desk. These are good rates. Let us try, however,
    to see the reality in these numbers. Let us confess that the greater
    part of farmers did not profit from the process, the success of good
    harvest of grain was achieved by mainly big landowners. The ordinary
    farmer sweats blood and earns the daily bread, today a little less,
    tomorrow a little more. He has owned the land for so many years. Did
    he get over poverty? Statistics shows that in the years 2002-2003 a
    good harvest of grain was gathered, about 82-85 thousand tons. Today
    Karabakh has 145 thousand inhabitants. For this number of people 30-40
    thousand is enough. The rest of the harvest can be used for
    development of cattle breeding, can't it? In other words, use
    effectively what is considered property of the owners working
    separately from one another. It is difficult but possible. It is
    possible, for example order the mill to make big purchases in order
    later not to buy the wheat at higher prices and raise the price for
    bread. Once when we wanted to open food fabrication factories, the
    government of Azerbaijan obstructed us in any possible way. When we
    extended a project of building something in the Autonomous Region of
    Nagorni Karabakh, it was implemented but in some region of Azerbaijan
    adjacent to NKAR. The same was with the construction of an irrigation
    system. The consequences of this policy was that Karabakh, rich in
    rivers, suffered from drought, whereas Azerbaijani regions flourished
    from abundance of water. Yes, we live in capitalism but who said that
    there cannot be planning in market relationships. Such examples are
    many in the practice of capitalism. We must plan at least the prior
    branches for development of agriculture. We must not wait until it
    will come some rich person's mind to build an irrigation canal in some
    village of Karabakh or something like this. We will have to wait long
    in this case but time does not wait. The government must undertake the
    building of irrigation canals and factories of food fabrication. Yes,
    to plan, to work out a program for a certain period, and let it be
    slow but day by day, year by year build especially an irrigation
    system and food fabrication factories. You may not render better help
    to the farmer. In parallel to this, one of the urgent problems, the
    outflow of the youth from the village will be solved. As an
    experienced specialist I may announce with all responsibility: if we
    do not solve the problem of employment of village youth, tomorrow it
    will be late. Several years I taught at Artsakh State University and I
    know that in the department of agriculture the number of students was
    usually few. Isn't there a need for specialists of agriculture in our
    agrarian country? Those who have chosen this specialty do not study
    well, and a bad student will not become a good specialist. Here,
    however, there occurs another problem; even the bad specialist cannot
    find a job in the villages of the agrarian country. I want to recall
    the situation of the times of Russian tsarism, our parents will
    testify that then there was a specialist in each village who was
    occupied with breeding good tribes of cattle. Why is it impossible to
    keep at least one specialist at the expense of the regional
    administrations? It is necessary to plan the number of
    specialists. Moreover, I have to say, these specialists should be
    trained at least in Armenia (which has comparatively developed
    agriculture and has qualified specialists) or at best in Europe. This
    can be done on the means of the numerous benefactors who willingly
    lend us a hand of assistance. It is necessary to plan storage of
    grain, development of viticulture and orcharding. Yes, in the current
    state of agriculture it is necessary to resort to planning to a
    certain extent. We have already mentioned that the worst mistake of
    the past decade was elimination of collective farms which resulted in
    the collapse of the former system, the loss of the wealth accumulated
    during decades, a crisis occurred overcoming of which will take a long
    time. It is known that without interference the mistakes made in
    agriculture are corrected during decades. But it is possible to
    interfere and try to correct them in a short period of time."

    SUSANNA BALAYAN.
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