The French Government will grant to Armenia next week a loan of $ 82 million. It will be used for the renovation and expansion of irrigation networks in rural areas of the country.

According to the French Embassy in Yerevan, the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Ministry of Finance of Armenia will sign an agreement to this effect on January 26.

A statement from the embassy published last Thursday explained that the loan will directly benefit 4,500 households in the southern Ararat Valley where there are a lot of fruit growing, and west of the Armenian capital. The statement said the loan will be devoted primarily to the construction of a water tank near Vedi, a small town in the south of the province of Ararat. The plant will increase by 3,200 hectares the total area of ​​arable land in the area covered by irrigation.

The head of the water resources of the State Committee in Armenia, Aram Harutyunyan stressed the importance of “strategic” Vedi the tank during his meeting with AFD official early December 2015. He explained that the Construction will begin in 2016 and last about five years.

The Soviet-built irrigation systems in Armenia have already absorbed considerable capital investment in recent years. This includes a $ 177 million reconstruction of 6 main canals, 17 water pumping stations and water drainage system of Ararat and Armavir the neighboring provinces. It was funded by a US government agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation. The project was completed in 2011.

Later in 2011, the World Bank had disbursed a loan of $ 18 million for other improvements in the irrigation of the country, which should benefit around 90,000 farmers. However, lack of irrigation water remains a serious problem that hinders the development of the Armenian agricultural sector.

In 2015, the Armenian government has obtained two other irrigation loans with a combined value of $ 65 million, from the Fund Eurasia in Moscow for the stabilization and development and a loan from the OPEC group of exporting nations oil.