Heavy rain and hail destroy crops in a dozen villages throughout Armenia

A heavy hailstorm rolled through the entire territory of Armenia on 12 June, which mostly affected the Armavir province. Nearly all crops were destroyed in a dozen villages there.

Shirak, Kotayk and Tavushprovinces were less affected by the disaster.

There haven’t been so far any official data on what exactly was destroyed by the disaster. The Agriculture Ministry officials, accompanied by the Armavir province governor, travelled from one village to another in order to study the situation on the ground.

Meanwhile, the farmers claim that the hail destroyed entire crops, be it fruits (apricots, cherry, apples) or cucurbit crops (tomatoes, potatoes, beans).

The head of Mrgastan village assured us that 100% of crops were destroyed. “You can go to any house, starting from mine – there’s nothing there. I walked around the village during the hail, it was really terrible… The hail hit the village simultaneously with the rain and destroyed everything.”

Arutyun Navasadryan, the head of Shaumyan village, also reported on the loss of entire crops: “Everything is destroyed and leveled to the ground, be it vineyards or orchards…”

On a side note, the hail and rain also hit the capital. It was absolutely impossible to drive through many streets in Yerevan at that time. According to Gagik Surenyan, the Chief of the Meteorology Center at the Armenian Emergency Situations Ministry, most precipitation fell within 10-15 minutes, and reached 13-14mm per hour that night. This is nearly a half of the monthly norm in Armenia in June.