Rural Asset Creation Programme

The Rural Asset Creation Programme, fully compliant with Armenia's Sustainable Development Programme and the 2006 Agricultural Sustainable Development Strategy, will operate in all Armenia's rural areas with the exception of the Ararat Region.

The programme will target poor producers engaged in the fruit and nut value chains - women and men in the poorest part of the country who have both an interest in moving towards more commercial market-oriented production and a willingness to do so.

In achieving its goal or reducing poverty in Armenia, the programme will:

• establish an economically viable fruits and nuts sector with backwards linkages to poor rural smallholders;
• establish a fully privatized entity to deliver services to the fruits and nuts sector (Fruit Armenia); and
• remove infrastructure bottlenecks that inhibit increasing participation by the economically active rural poor in enhanced commercialization of the rural economy.

The programme will:

• support the fruits and nuts sector and seek to increase poor smallholders' assets and incomes in the programme area by linking them more profitably to the Armenian fruit and nut value chains. The linkage will be achieved through a comprehensive package of modern technology transfer to poor smallholder primary producers and the associated job creation among processors and traders, complemented by assistance in other key aspects of the value chain. Support will be provided through:
  • establishment of Fruit Armenia; and
  • promotion of standards and exports.
• support investments for the construction or rehabilitation of public utilities that IFAD's experience in Armenia has shown to be critical for the economic development and well-being of rural communities (such as. water supply, natural gas supply, storm-water drainage).

It will also support investments in rural roads and ancillary structures that complement and strengthen the programme investments made under the first component, for example by assuring adequate access to programme-supported fruit and nut production areas and facilitating the marketing of their produce.

Source: IFAD