ICARE’s Agribusiness Research and Education in Armenia Expanding with Ecofarm

Ecofarm and Agribusiness

The newest effort to give students hands-on experience is the ecofarm. The goal, Grigoryan said, is to establish it within a five-mile radius of Yerevan so that it would be easy for students to work there after their classes finish at the ICARE center in downtown Yerevan. The winery will be moved there too eventually. Students will be able to produce wine, dried apricots and other dried fruits. Grigoryan said that ICARE will try to establish a blueberry garden. There will be a winetasting facility, and it could turn into a place for tourists. A small vertical farm is being built there as a room.

Grigoryan worked at an American farm school in Thessaloniki, Greece, for five years, which had different production units, for dairy and milk, lettuce, greenhouses, etc. He said this model of adding production and commercial activities was a good one. This way, students will not only learn production, but also design packaging, do promotion, and in general attain the skills to be an entrepreneur by the time they graduate. The ecofarm can also serve as an agribusiness business incubation center for novel ideas.

Grigoryan pictures the ecofarm as an agricultural TUMO. Unlike the TUMO Center, providing free afterschool lessons in digital media in Armenia and elsewhere, the ecofarm has a commercial component so that students will be able to sell whatever they can produce.

There is a second reason for locating the ecofarm near Yerevan besides closeness to the ICARE downtown center. As Grigoryan explains it, Armenian is a one-city country in reality, and the people in that city, Yerevan, who have money think of the IT sector first when they are looking to invest money. Grigoryan said, “What we want to show to those who live in Yerevan and have the money to invest is that agriculture organized in the right way, if you grow the right varieties and prune correctly, can be highly profitable.” Youth from rural areas will be brought too, but for the ones from Yerevan, he said, “We want to show them that when they grow up they should use their family capital to invest in agriculture.” They can then go to rural areas and establish an orchard to employ the local population.

Grigoryan added that only investments in agriculture could keep villagers where they are. Once they go to urban centers for work, it is hard to get them to go back.

When asked whether the scale of agriculture now being practiced was a problem in Armenia, he agreed, but only for industrial agriculture, where big plots of land allow synergies to reduce costs. It is not that big an obstacle for high value agriculture and family businesses, because you can focus, he said, on a specific market, like herbs such as mint or basil. A small plot of one hectare could supply the entire Yerevan market for these herbs. Similarly, the preparation of dried fruits can be conducted in a small production facility and the fruits bought from various farmers.

Grigoryan explained also that the reason why vegetables are imported from Turkey and Iran which also are grown in Armenia was lacking of proper planning by Armenian producers and greenhouse owners. Gaps in harvests for items like tomatoes and peppers allow importers to take advantage, though their imports are not particularly cheap. Grigoryan said this situation can be rectified in the future.

Research and Fisheries

ICARE in addition to education and training provides economic research, such as the seasonal price analysis of different crops, value chain analysis, qualitative and quantitative assessments, feasibility analysis, and due diligence. It produces papers and publications which are openly accessible on its website to the public.

ICARE has carried out one successful research program somewhat outside its strictly agricultural focus, thanks to a USAID Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research grant. It is called Sustainable Fisheries to Enhance Water Resources in Armenia, and its goal was to support fish farms in the Ararat valley, primarily Armavir and Ararat. Underground water resources in the Ararat valley are being depleted, largely due to the inefficient use of water by fish arms, which are growing rapidly in Armenia. ICARE analyzed their operations, said Grigoryan, developed a special water recirculation system model, and applied it at one fish farm. This project was so successful that a presentation was made to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who liked it and asked to see the final report with its recommendations.

Fundraising and Institutional Relations

ICARE began with US Department of Agriculture financing, which the US Agency for International Development continued. Grigoryan declared, “Our goal is to shift to the model of modern academic institutions which depend on an endowment fund. We would like to develop an endowment fund for ICARE and we would like to see a commercial component so that we can produce certain products that we can sell. ICARE itself of course is a nonprofit foundation established in Armenia and governed by its own board.”

Many Armenians in the US and elsewhere in the diaspora already have become firm financial supporters of ICARE, and Grigoryan is hopeful that further funding will be raised for endowments to provide ongoing support for ICARE’s various projects, like the ecofarm.

ICARE maintains its academic relationship with Texas A&M University, which provides certificates for graduates of undergraduate or graduate programs. As the latter cannot provide diplomas outside of the state of Texas, ICARE has a joint agreement with the Armenian National Agrarian University, which provides Armenian state diplomas. Certain programs are conducted jointly with other institutions. For example, the wine program is done together with Geisenheim University in Germany, so joint certification is given to graduates from both institutions, while food safety programs with Pennsylvania State University and Virginia Tech follow a similar protocol.