One woman's business skills benefit the community Armenia -- Lusik Harutinunyan trained and worked as a teacher before the collapse of the Soviet system and the civil war that followed. Like many other people who lived through these events, her life changed radically. She lost her job and her assets and was forced to abandon her profession and turn to farming to feed and support her family. While many around her gave up in the face of disaster and grief, waiting passively for external forces such as humanitarian aid to solve their problems, Lusik struggled back to her feet. Her strong personality and leadership qualities not only benefited her family but also helped drive the economic revival of her village, Azatan and helped motivate and inspire her fellow villagers. She and her husband, a former engineer, pursued a series of business ideas that failed to succeed. But they never lost their optimism and their willingness to take risks. In the early 1990s the government of the newly established Republic of Armenia privatized land formerly owned by the state, and Lusik's family was given a piece of land measuring less than a hectare. She and her husband began to produce potato seeds on a plot that was too small to allow for much more than subsistence farming. In 2000 she obtained a loan from the Agricultural Cooperative Bank of Armenia (ACBA) made available through an IFAD programme. Slowly but surely the couple began to use available credit to lease other plots of land and expand their farming activities. In 2001 Lusik founded a company called Agro-Luys Ltd., an enterprise that specializes in the production of potato seeds. Now Agro-Luys is one of the main potato seed providers in the Republic of Armenia . The company leases 100 hectares from 100 families, not only generating its own income but also guaranteeing US$2,500 in annual income to the families. And the company also provides permanent, high-paying jobs to hundreds of people from Azatan and neighbouring communities. During the peak season it employs as many as 300 people, who earn an average wage of up to US$9 a day. About 95 per cent of the employees are women. Workers are allowed to take home potato seeds and the chemical fertilizers they need to grow their own potatoes. Lusik has been tireless in pursuing new approaches and technologies in farming. When, in 2002, the Government of Armenia in 2002 with the assistance of IFAD, the World Bank and other international organizations initiated irrigation reforms across the country, she seized the opportunity to take part in the new scheme. The main objective of this reform was to decentralize irrigation schemes and encourage grass-roots organizations to take on responsibility for the maintenance of secondary irrigation. Together with a handful of other progressive farmers, Lusik convinced local communities to set up the Aygabatz water user's association to manage their own irrigation. Lusik is now not only the largest beneficiary of the organization but also the largest contributor, paying more than US$16,000 annually to the association. She often helps out poorer villagers by paying their quota, because she knows that water is an essential resource for farmers who have no additional sources of income. Her leadership qualities and business skills have brought employment and income to hundreds of local families. Lusik has also helped people in her village unite and mobilize to oppose forces that undermine their interests. When government officials from Yerevan took over warehouses built during the Soviet period, which were being used by the whole community and which the government intended to dismantle and sell for scrap, Lusik led the villagers in protest. For several days they blockaded roads and entrances to the warehouse and unloaded trucks of sand to prevent access. As a result of their action, the warehouse's owner was compelled to conduct negotiations and the buildings are now leased to the Agro-Luys company. Source: IFAD |
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