12/10/2025

Non-chemical alternatives for sustainable agriculture in Armenia: best practices

The project “Non-chemical alternatives for sustainable agriculture in Armenia,best practices” is being implemented by AWHHE from September 2024 up to September 2025

aimed at empowering small holder farmers, especially women, with innovative knowledge and skills to take advantage of existing opportunities in smart alternative agriculture obtain training in alternative agriculture focusing on IPM.in order to boost their farms’ productivity

 

 

The problem

There is a growing interest in alternative agroecological practices. However, Armenia is facing challenges for the alternative sustainable agriculture, such as low land resource use efficiency (mainly due to small farm size); violation of agrotechnological practices, irrigation regimes, and rotations; lack of clear legislative background (e.g. HHPs) and financial incentives; poorly controlled national pesticide market; etc

Over a third of population is rural, 82% of women are engaged in informal agriculture.

Smallholder farmers face low productivity and income challenges due to climatic risks and poor access to innovations. Effectiveness of farmers’ attempts to change approaches is still low.

Challenges, in particular for women farmers interested in innovations, include insufficient access to and availability of existing information, knowledge deficiencies at all levels related to sustainable agricultural practices. Especially vulnerable are the smallholder farms who are fragmented and often have limited access to inputs, new agricultural technologies. Enabling smallholder farmers, especially women, to adopt new agricultural (e.g. agroecology) approaches to farming helps build more sustainable safe food systems that protect the environment, improve smallholder livelihoods, create new business opportunities, particularly for the most disadvantaged.  delete

The outcomes of the project:

  • the current evidence of use of non-chemical alternatives for sustainable agricultural practice were identified and promoted;
  • Public interest related to development, adoption and implementation of non-chemical alternative pest management systems was increased among rural population of Lori and Kotayk provinces.

Outputs: 

  • An awareness-raising campaign on non-chemical alternative pest management systems was conducted through various communication channels, including development of the information materials/publication, updates on the AWHHE website awhhe.am

 and posts on the organization’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/awhhe

 and dedicated closed group for women. The campaign aimed to increase public understanding and encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly sustainable agricultural practices.

 

  • As part of this project, several farmers were interviewed to share their experiences and insights on sustainable farming methods, including IPM application, drip irrigation, cover crops, etc. These interviews were published on AWHHE’s Facebook page, helping to promote peer learning and inspire other farmers, particularly women, to apply non-chemical approaches in their own practices. link
  • Additionally, a dedicated project webpage was created on AWHHE’s official website, ensuring that the project-related information is easily accessible to interested stakeholders and the broader public. Rural women and local authorities gained knowledge on sustainable agriculture approaches and applications. link
  • Smallholder farmers benefitted from increased awareness and ready-to-use sustainable agricultural solutions.
  • AWHHE developed a publication /desk study/ to summarize and disseminate good practices in sustainable agriculture in Armenia. link
  • 32 participants were directly involved through two offline trainings aimed at generating

knowledge on sustainable agricultural solutions. Link to Hrant presentation

  • These groups gained practical skills in identifying diseases, developing and implementing

safe alternatives/ IPM approaches in their farming activities.

  • An awareness-raising campaign on sustainable agriculture were conducted through

various communication channels, including development of the information

materials/publication, updates on the AWHHE website, and posts on the organization’s

Facebook page and dedicated closed group for women.link

 

The support from the GGF Fund helped AWHHE strengthen its engagement and cooperation with local communities and national authorities, particularly on issues related to sustainable agriculture and environmentally responsible practices.

Information Materials