YEREVAN. – Armenia’s Agriculture Minister has sent a team of specialists to assess the damage caused by the hail, Acting Minister Ignaty Arakelyan said in response to PM Nikol Pashinyan’s question (PHOTO).

Arakelyan said the losses are not very significant, however some fruit gardens were damaged.

 Pashinyan asked what measures the government used to take earlier after assessing the amount of damage from the hail. The acting minister said the government usually had an opportunity to exempt agricultural entities from paying land tax, water charges and other obligations to the state, and compensated for the purchase of seeds. Ignaty Arakelyan also informed that the affected gardens are outside the zone of action of the anti-hail facilities.

“At the moment, we can provide only 15 percent coverage and for 2 years we intend to expand it to 70 percent,” he said.

“We will definitely discuss this issue again. It is necessary to make sure that the government support for the agricultural entities affected by the hail is effective and not formal, so that people feel that the government is really making serious efforts to get them out of the difficult situation. It is necessary to return to this issue after the adoption of the corresponding government program,” PM Pashinyan said.