The money allocated by the World Bank and the Government of Armenia, a total of $20 million, for de-desertification of pastures is not used purposefully, says Stepan Khoetsyan, a member of the Committee for Agriculture and Environment, Public Council. According to him, pastures occupy an area of 1 million ha and hayfield - 130,000 ha, by official statistics.
At the same time, the expert said, some 600,000 ha of pastures are not used, as they are full with poisonous plants. The remaining 400,000 ha of pastures are overpastured, which is pregnant with desertification. Khoetsyan says that the problem becomes more serious given that pasture production is 3-4-fold lower than normal. The expert said that over that last two years, meat production per capita in Armenia was half as much as in the other CIS countries, and milk production per capita was 1.4-fold less than generally in the CIS. The country takes the 10th and 8th positions in the CIS by these indicators.
Earlier, Head of EcoLur Ngo Inga Zarafyan said that 81% of Armenia's territory is threatened with desertification. Referring to statistics, she said that Armenia's agricultural lands occupied an area of 2,101,000 hectares in 2008, whereas this area was 2,076,000 hectares in 2011 - a loss of 30,000 hectares of lands. She came out for changing the government policy of excessive use of lands and water resources.