Armenia

Crisis in the countryside

In Armenia, farmers are struggling to make a living. Many still remember the Soviet days when they struggled to reap the benefits of a collective farming system under state ownership, and still lack trust in forming co-operatives to market their produce.

Today, many farmers face difficulties in accessing markets due in part in to bad inter-community roads and transportation. Limited information on market prices means that farmers have little choice but to sell their produce to middlemen at much lower prices than the actual market value. Extreme weather conditions and lack of storage facilities are also making it harder to preserve and market highly perishable crops. As a result, farmers are unable to get their products to market, gain a sufficient income and improve their livelihoods.

How Oxfam is helping

Oxfam is encouraging small-scale farmers, including women, to form co-operatives and foster new trade opportunities by facilitating links to wholesalers and big suppliers. Our support in building cold storage facilities will enable farmers to increase the life span of their crops so they can sell their produce throughout the year.

Alongside this, we have developed new SMS initiatives which enable farmers to receive information about market prices via their mobile phone. Equipped with this information farmers can choose the most profitable market to transport their goods, and ensure they receive a fair price for their produce. 

Before we started this co-operative, our main issue was marketing and selling our fruit. We struggled to pay for good fertiliser and afford the heavy transport costs to urban areas. Our greatest hope right now is that this storage facility will allow us to prolong the shelf life of our fruits.

Shmavon Azatyan, head of the co-operative in Zaritap

Oxfam's other work in Armenia

• Advocating for greater awareness of health rights at government level

• Strengthening farmers’ capacity to fight climate change

• Supporting women to have their say at government level

• Helping disaster prone communities to respond to natural disasters and climate shocks.

Oxfam's work in Armenia in depth

Community voices

Due to bad infrastructure, many Armenian villages remain isolated and cut off from mainstream society. Communities are unaware of their rights and have little chance to voice their concerns to people in power. Many people living in these rural communities lack access to new technology, and as a result are further held back from actively participating in society.

How Oxfam is helping

Oxfam is helping people living in remote and disadvantaged communities to have a say in the decision-making process, and ensure their voices are heard at government level. We have created grass root institutions including civic centres, and women/youth leadership groups that help foster civic activism and trigger dialogue between the rural communities and state authorities. Alongside this, we are helping to protect people’s rights by facilitating free online legal consultations via Skype.

  Free online consultations with city-based lawyers provide opportunity for the most vulnerable and handicapped members of community to get immediate legal support without spending time, efforts and precious financial resources on transportation.

Michael Chartaryan, Gyumry region, programme co-ordinator

We are also helping to amplify the voices of rural and isolated communities through social media channels. With our support, communities are receiving training on using blogs, online petitions and social networks to make their voices heard.

Learn more

Oxfam's work in Armenia in depth