During a question-and-answer session with government officials in parliament today, deputy of the Prosperous Armenia faction Sergey Bagratyan asked the Prime Minister of Armenia what the government’s plan for food safety is, what steps are being taken to make sure Armenia has the types and quantities of crops that Armenia expects to have in the fall.

In response, Nikol Pashinyan stated that the government plans to make major changes in the structure of agriculture and will be paying all the debts of farmers and offer, through co-financing, agricultural loans to farmers who don’t have bad credit histories. As for those farmers who are on “black lists”, Pashinyan suggested that they create agricultural cooperatives so that they can receive loans.

“In this case, the government’s co-financing may be up to 70%. Since there is a view that people won’t have big chances of leaving for work abroad, the government’s hypothesis is that those people will be involved in the agriculture sector and help solve the problem with food safety,” he said.

When Bagratyan told the Prime Minister that people are already planting trees and the government isn’t giving them irrigation water, the Prime Minister said he didn’t believe him and added that the government gave irrigation water to villagers in March and will supply more water, if necessary.