YEREVAN. – Agriculture can’t be treated as an ordinary agribusiness; it’s a matter of national security, food security.

The newly appointed Minister of Agriculture of Armenia, Artur Khachatryan, on Tuesday told the above-said to reporters at parliament.

Khachatryan noted that even though he is serving as agriculture minister for just seven days now, he was intensively involved in this sector when he worked as deputy minister and governor of the Shirak Province, alike.

“But the biggest problem we [Armenia] have [in agriculture] is the more than 400,000 people who are engaged in agriculture, and those people feel themselves to be disregarded by the state,” Khachatryan said, in particular. “Agriculture can’t be treated as an ordinary agribusiness; it’s a matter of national security, food security.

“We are interested that fines and penalties don’t destroy agriculture [in Armenia].

“If misuses took place [in Armenia’s agriculture], there shall be differential approach. The amount needs to be found out, assessed, and then decisions [need to be] made.”