Laura Schroeder left the USA on Thursday, July 22, 2010 arriving in Yerevan, Armenia over 24 hours later. Her mission is to review the priorities for the development of agricultural policy legislation to meet the priority goal of the Millennium Challenge: to end poverty and hunger.
The United States worked with the Republic of Armenia to decide that the best ways to achieve this goal was to improve agricultural production and markets. A necessary component of increasing agricultural production in Armenia is to improve irrigation systems and management. In 2009, Laura assisted in the drafting of the agricultural policy which was adopted by the RA. Her mission for 2010 is to assist in the drafting of legislation related to the 5 identified priorities of the agricultural policy.
Laura began her work on Monday, July 26, 2010 to participate in the tour of MCC accomplishments with the Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, and the US Ambassador to Armenia, Marie L. Yovanovitch.
The tour included (1) A visit to the community of Merdzavan to see the lower Hrazdan main canal that was rehabilitated by funds from MCA-Armenia;
(2) A visit to the community of Artimet to see the rehabilitation of third level (near farm) ditches also rehabilitated by funds from MCA-Armenia;
(3) A visit to the community of Gridoedov to see the irrigation/agricultural development site funded by MCA-Armenia. This farm is owned by Sevan Jamalyan; and
(4) Finally a visit to a water user association, Vagharshapat, whose director is Surik Sedrakyan.
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Laura is meeting with government officials from the Public Services Regulatory Commission to discuss the legislation.
In addition, she has already met with contractors assisting the implementation including AVAG Solutions, Ltd, and VISTAA.
