Pashinyan explains decline in Armenia’s agriculture

Armenia’s agricultural sector has recorded a decline in 2026, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, adding that this was not unexpected as the government is focusing on the transition to intensive agriculture and diversification of export markets. He also noted that his administration has provided farmers with hundreds of millions of dollars in support since taking office in 2018.

“If I am not mistaken, according to the statistics, we do not have growth in the agricultural sector this year; on the contrary, we have a decline. And I can say that this is not unexpected, for several reasons,” Pashinyan said in parliament in response to a question from Narek Karapetyan, head of the opposition Strong Armenia faction, about agricultural growth since the beginning of the year.

According to the Prime Minister, the key direction of agricultural development under the Government program is intensive agriculture.

“It is clearly written in the Government program that by agriculture we must henceforth understand intensive agriculture, because the forms of farming that are widely used today are no longer agriculture, and they will never grow. On the contrary, making efforts to increase them means condemning Armenia to attempts to develop along a path of non-development,” Pashinyan said.

He emphasized that productivity needs to be increased in the sector while at the same time reducing excessive dependence on a single market.

“We need to develop intensive agriculture and, on the other hand, we need to diversify the markets for our agricultural products, including export markets, because not only in agriculture but in any economic sector in general, if our dependence on any one place or point is disproportionate, it means that we do not have management to ensure and organize the development of our sector,” the Prime Minister said.

According to him, the government is implementing numerous programs in the agricultural sector.

“And in general, if you are interested, I can say that since 2018 we have provided support to farmers amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars and continue to provide support. We are convinced that our strategies are precisely the right formula that will solve problems both in villages and in cities and everywhere else,” the Prime Minister said.