After Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia’s Growing Dependence on Imported Wheat

continue grain farming in Armenia, where the numbers increasingly fail to add up. “I used to sow about 50 hectares of wheat and 40 hectares of barley, but this year I decided not to plant winter crops at all,” Nersesyan said. High land rents, irrigation fees, and rising input costs are pushing his production costs above the price of imported Russian wheat. “When you calculate everything, imported grain is cheaper, and the local producer cannot compete.” Nersesyan’s experience reflects a broader transformation in Armenia’s food security following the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh’s agricultural lands. Before the 2020 war, wheat and other grains imported from Nagorno-Karabakh accounted for about 10–12% of Armenia’s total wheat inflows. In the years leading up to the war, Armenia imported between 38,000 and 50,000 tonnes of grain annually from the region, roughly 30,000 of which were wheat. That volume covered about 6–9% of Armenia’s annual wheat consumption and as much as a quarter of ...