EcoLur
The World Food Day unnoticeable passed in Armenia on 16 October, which is designed to attract attention to food safety. Nevertheless, this issue will remain for Armenia as one of the most topical ones, as we continue getting deprived of our own resources, which enable to feed the whole country. Agricultural land areas, about 7-8 thousand per year are allotted for mining industry and energy needs. The remaining land areas are obtained by oligarchs as low-cost capital. These land areas are not used for their purpose, they are deprived of their fertility, degradation process begins and land areas turn into saline lands. According to Ararat Aarhus Center, about 30,000 ha of land area in Ararat and Armavir regions are endangered to be completely converted into saline lands.
Freshwater is another factor for food security, which is polluted with industrial wastes and sewage. The list of industrially polluted rivers and reservoirs is getting increased. In the recent year the list having earlier included Akhtala, Debed, Voghji, KArtchevan, Hrazdan, and Agstev Rivers, now may also include Dzoraget where the wastes of Armanis ore processing are dumped. The rivers of the Sevan basin, Sotq and Masrik, are also polluted with industrial wastes of Sotq gold mine.
Lake Sevan already doesn’t have any industrial reserves of fish, which helped in the 90’s to solve the problem with undermined food reserves of the country and fed the whole population of the country. These reserves have already got extinct in the rivers of Armenia, where the constructed HPPS take all the water into pipes and don’t leave any opportunity for fish and also for people having deprived of irrigation of their lands.
Under the scheme of small HPP development, their number should be over 300.
The authorities run a policy of encouraging the oligarchs, which import food products. Under the data of National Association of Armenian Consumers, 85% of food products is imported. Armenian producers can ensure our population with high-quality production, but nobody encourages them. On the contrary, we all the time witness the satisfaction of the government with the fact that farmers, instead of feeding themselves and the town, get employed as workers at mines and will get from 30,000 to 120,000 AMD as a salary for 8-10 years. The government keeps silence what will happen afterwards.
Reminder: under UN FAO assessment, the number of hungry people worldwide is 870 million. The hazard this figure may boost in Armenia is rather high.
October 18, 2012 at 14:56