MCA-Armenia conducted its last training session of the Water-to-Market program (WtM) on March 30, 2011 in the Alapars community of Kotayk Marz. Certificates of completion were awarded to the final 20 farmers to be trained in High Value Agriculture (HVA) practices and methods. In Alapars, a total of 149 farmers received On-Farm Water Management training, of which 65 were trained in HVA. The RA Deputy Minister of Agriculture Vardan Karapetyan, Kotayk Marz Governor Kovalenko Shahgaldyan, MCC Representative Alex Russin and representatives of MCA-Armenia CEO Ara Hovsepyan and the team implementing the WtM Project attended the final training session. MCA-Armenia has achieved its Compact training targets: 45,000 farmers trained in On-Farm Water Management, of which, 36,000 received training in High Value Agriculture. In the past 4 years MCA-Armenia program has provided two types of training to Armenian farmers: · On Farm Water Management - farmers learn to manage water on their own fields, orchards and kitchen plots by applying irrigation technologies and techniques that enhance irrigation efficiency, save labor and time, and help to increase crop yields. · High Value Agriculture - farmers learn about the benefits of transitioning from low-value to higher value crops, about increased cropping intensity, improved cultivation, treatment and protections practices. The successes from MCA-Armenia trainings are showcased in over 230 demonstration sites. WtM gives the trained farmers the opportunity to visit the demo sites in proximity to their communities and observe firsthand the benefits of new irrigation and farming approaches. The U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation’s total investment in Armenia’s agricultural and water sector is expected to reach USD 180 million by program’s completion in September 2011. The goal of the program is the reduction of rural poverty through the rehabilitation of Armenia’s vital irrigation infrastructure, complemented with extensive technical and financial assistance to rural farmers, and to the government irrigation entities that support them.

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