Back in 2019, the “Shen” NGO donated the farm to the Armenia National Agrarian University (ANAU) with the aim of supporting the establishment of the “Organic Agriculture” master’s program, which was approved in September 2020 with the funding of APPEAR, “Promotion of Organic Agriculture in Armenia. Improvement of knowledge and skills of organic beneficiaries” (BOAA) within the framework of the program.
Thus, the “Akunq” organic agriculture educational and training farm was created, which is located in the Akunq village of the Kotayk region, at an altitude of 1480 to 1500 m above sea level.
The mission of Akunq
Farm is to deepen the professional, social, environmental and technical knowledge of the graduates, to share and multiply them with the interested organizations and individuals of the field. It will certainly contribute to the strengthening and development of students’ practical skills.
The total area of the farm is more than 6.8 hectares. It has permanent infrastructures: classroom and meeting building conditions, 300 m2 greenhouse equipped with modern systems, irrigation pool, 1.2 ha apple and pear orchard, 0.2 ha raspberry and 0.3 ha intensive apricot orchard with anti-hail net and drip irrigation system, based in 2021, with funding from the EU GAIA project.
In previous years, the professors and students of the Faculty of Agronomy of the ANAU have repeatedly carried out maintenance work, planted berries: raspberries, thornless blackberries, conducted master’s theses field experiments related to the identification of the possibilities of the cultivation of spicy herbs, in 2023 Korgan was planted in order to improve the soil properties, and three master’s students of the master’s educational program of the 2023-2024 school year will perform the practical research of their theses.
The certification process of Akunk’s organic agriculture educational and training farm started in December 2019. The farm has successfully passed the transitional stages of certification (2020, 2021, 2022 certification body “EcoGlob” LLC) and in 2023 received an organic product certificate, the logo of which was included on the packaging of “Organic Apple Chips” made from the apple harvest of the given year. The certification process is coordinated by the deputy dean of the Faculty of Agronomy, associate professor of the Chair of Crop and Soil Science, candidate of science Sasun Mamajanyan.
For the further development of the farm, for the transformation of the student farm, as well as for the needs of the training and educational program of the teaching staff, another international program, SOAA (Strengthening of Organic Agriculture in Armenia, 2023-2025), is being implemented following the previous BOAA program, which coordinates Lusine Nalbandian.
The director of the farm and the official coordinator of the works is Garik Mnatsakanyan.