Waiting for season (video)
The Hakobyan family is trying to cultivate strawberry in Aramus, which is famous for its carrot. It is the first year they have cultivated strawberry, but they have already managed to examine the nuances of growing the berry. “Saltpeter isn’t appropriate for strawberries; we used saltpeter, but the plant dried off,” says Kima Hakobyan. They still don’t know how much profit they will get this year, but they are sure, that it will be more than the profit received from carrot. 
The neighboring family of the Hayrapetyans is also displeased with the carrot harvest; hail damaged their croft. Due to the quality of carrot, Derenik Hayrapetyan has suspicions that he will be able to sell it in the market. Though, not losing the hope, he will store the carrot harvest, in order to sell it in winder in small quantities in order to keep his large family. One out of Derenik Hayrapetyan’s 6 children is a serviceman, the other 4 are schoolchildren. Harutyun is in the 10th grade. He dreams of becoming a soldier and visiting the city of love, Paris. His future plans are also connected with his home village; he can describe his future house- one storey, having 4 rooms. Harutyun helps his father in the fields. His elder brother cannot help them; he has health problems. His two lungs were operated on. 
Many families in Aramus are displeased with their livelihood, but the Hayrapetyans and the Hakobyan are considered to be the most socially vulnerable ones. It isn’t accidental that their families were among the first ones, which have been included in the State Employment Agency’s “Assistance to rural economy through promoting seasonal employment” project. 21 families in Armenia are included in this project, which is intended for land users, who are considered to be uncompetitive in the Armenian market. “It would be very desirable, if 20 more families from our community were included in the project, as by that project the villagers receive AMD 50 000 and even AMD 250 000 until the end of the season,” says Samvel Nikoghosyan, representative of Aramus community municipality. Galust Galstyan, resident of the neighboring Jraber village, complains of this year’s harvest; he says that the hail did its black deed. But they have difficulty even in selling what they have, as the harvest is of bad quality. Even the aid from “Assistance to rural economy through promoting seasonal employment” project hasn’t made any change. 
“That aid is very helpful; the harvest is always good, but this year’s weather spoilt everything, everything was useless…” says Galust Galstyan. Gevorg Arakelyan’s trees are in the same croft as Galust Galstyan’s. Though, Gevorg isn’t included in the project for the reason that his sons are grown-up. “The croft is 17 hectares; they included 7 hectares in the project, and 10 hectares were left, the people are disappointed,” he says. 
As of 15.09.2016, within the frames of the project agreements have been signed with 5555 land users. For daily work the land user included in the project and his family member receive AMD 4000. Another AMD 3000 is paid to an employee included in the project. Besides, for one hour’s work of the agricultural equipment AMD 5000 is intended. The total cost of the project for one land user mustn’t exceed AMD 350 000. In order to be included in the project the family must meet several standards, for example, the family must be included in the vulnerability assessment system. Within the frames of “Assistance to rural economy through promoting seasonal employment” project 12 communities and 207 land users have been included in Abovyan in 2016. Hrayr Hakobyan, Director of Territorial Employment Center of Abovyan, highlights, “Many people, who didn’t want to cultivate their croft, started working after learning about our project.” 
This year’s budget of “Assistance to rural economy through promoting seasonal employment” project makes up AMD 1 billion 126 million, the same as it was last year. The largest financial means, AMD 178 million 850 have been provided to Ararat marz, the smallest, AMD 47 million 950 to Vayots Dzor. The sums are allocated by the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
