An interesting seminar was held by Dr. Stanislaw Minta and Dr. Arkadius Dyjakon, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences for the Agribusiness and Economics department of the Armenian National Agrarian University on October 28. The Polish colleagues presented the topics “Socioeconomic aspects of the development of entrepreneurship in rural areas” and “Modern approaches of innovative economics in rural areas”, respectively.
The guest speakers presented the activities accomplished within the scope of the innovative Rubizmo project that allowed to achieve a significant economic and social progress in a number of rural regions in Poland. Dr. Dyjakon and Dr. Minta shared the success of the project that was achieved thanks to the objective evaluation of the potential of the rural areas, bold vision, principles and tools based on international experience and practices, and targeted financial support from the EU and the European Commission.
The presentation by our polish colleagues made it clear that Rubizmo experience is quite applicable from the standpoint of developing rural areas in Armenia; shortly, what it is all about is developing entrepreneurship and economic activity in rural regions through new technologies and close cooperation between different fields of economy. This includes diversification of economy, including, in addition to production, also the processing of agricultural crops, development of agritourism, etc. All this activity, however, should not only be environmentally friendly but also help address environmental issues. The seminar and the videos demonstrated during the seminar clearly indicated that economic empowerment of rural areas and increase in the incomes of farmers are possible and even depend on the harmonious coexistence with mother nature.
The topics discussed were directly related to the policies and vision of ANAU as Armenia’s leading institution in agricultural education, research and extension. Dr. Minta, Dr. Dyjakon and Prof. Eduard Ghazaryan, Dean of the Department of Agribusiness and Economics, who summed up the seminar, expressed the opinion that the two universities need to develop closer cooperation through face-to-face meetings that usually create both business and friendly relationships.
From this perspective, Prof. Ghazaryan appreciated the visit by Polish colleagues amidst today’s unfavorable pandemic situation. Dr. Minta and Dr. Dyjakon thanked for the opportunity and said Dr. Vardan Aleksanyan, Chair of Agrarian Economics and Prof. Ghazaryan are the reason why they were here and that they expect ongoing cooperation between Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences and ANAU.
