LOANS UNPEOPLE VILLAGES

Anahit Darbinyan, Aragatsotn Region

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 15:38:11 – 09/09/2011

Ushi Village is in the region of Aragatsotn, Armenia. Here people are
friendly until they hear anything about agricultural loans. This is
the most sensitive issue for them.

The village people say they are squeezed by the loans. “Then they
pretend as if they know nothing. This is mockery,” says Suren Simonyan
from Ushi.

In this community of 1007 people, only one bank lent loans to 200
borrowers. The head of the village administration says over 300 people
have borrowed money from banks.

Jonik Mkhitaryan says the loan agreements have no provisions on hail,
for instance, or any other natural disaster. The surprises of nature
are combined with the high interests of the banks. On the one hand,
the bank demands its money back. On the other hand, there is no
harvest. ‘The state turned its back to us. No kind of assistance has
been given to our village. They could at least help us with irrigation
water,’ he says.

28 of 1560 hectares of land of the community are apple gardens.

Villagers borrow money for their gardens, and very often, despite
treatments, harvest is damaged by natural disasters.

The loan amount is usually 500 thousands drams to be repaid in 2 years,
interest on loan is 10-22%. Farmers try to earn money in different
ways to somehow repay the loans. Many of them have to work in Yerevan
or sell their livestock to pay their debts. The head of the village
administration, Homberd Atoyan says the head of cattle in the village
is low because people slaughter their animals and sell the meat to
pay off their loans.

Those, who have no cattle to sell leave the village to find a job
abroad. Most households are abandoned, the doors of most houses are
locked, they have left abroad to work and pay their debts, he says.

The residents of Ushi Village say they will repay the loans and leave
the country, this is the best choice.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress