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The major cultivated crops include vegetables and gourds, potatoes, wheat, grapes, and tobacco, with horticulture practiced as well, especially growing peaches and apricots.

Armenia is a mountainous country with non-uniform terrain and vertical zonation. Just 46% of Armenia’s territory is used for agriculture. The total area of cultivated land is about 4.5 thousand square kilometers.

Volumes of agricultural production

School plate

It’s clearly a pity if there’s fertile soil under your feet but you still have to buy vegetables and fruits from the market.

Across the Ararat plain, many schools have long considered the possibility of having orchards and kitchen gardens of their own. The boldest dream is to have a greenhouse of your own which will yield harvests nearly all year round.

Apricot

What's inside?

Potassium — for the health of the heart and blood vessels

Carotene — for sharp vision and elastic skin

Inulin — for normalizing weight

Calcium and iron — for proper brain function and bone growth

Apple

What's inside?

Iron — to prevent anemia

B vitamins — to digest fats and sugars

Vitamins A, C, E — to increase the body's defenses

Phosphorus, magnesium and potassium — for brain, heart and muscle function

Peach

What's inside?

Fructose, fiber — to saturate the body

Fruit acids — to speed up metabolic processes

Potassium — eliminates electrolyte imbalance

Pomegranate

What's inside?

Pantothenic acid — to normalize metabolism

Folacin — improves hematopoietic function

Pectin and tannins — to combat inflammation

Tomato

What's inside?

Pectins — for better bowel function

Choline — to reduce cholesterol levels and liver health

Ascorbic acid — for appetite and body protection

Folic acid — to improve metabolism

Cucumber

What's inside?

Water containing dissolved mineral salts

Potassium, silicon, sulfur, iodine, fructose and fiber — for digestion

Tartranic acid — for carbohydrate-fat metabolism

Eggplant

What's inside?

B vitamins — for strong nerves and healthy sleep

Ascorbic acid — for protection against colds

Folic acid and iron — for healthy growth and energy

Coriander

What's inside?

Organic acids — for good digestion

B vitamins — for brain function, good skin and metabolism

Pectin — to improve intestinal motility

Rutin — to combat “bad” cholesterol

The economic effect from growing vegetables on a plot of your own is unmistakable.

Each month, the parents of schoolchildren at each of the schools collect an average of 500 drams (USD 1.04) per person for the purchase of additional vegetables and other products.

With a greenhouse of its own in place, a school could buy with the proceeds not only additional vegetables for the cafeteria, but meat, cheese, legumes, eggs, or fermented milk products as well. This could help to significantly diversify children’s diets and cook them more nutritious dishes.

In organizing their procurement process, schools may have a hard time monitoring the quality of produce – after all, not every farmer in the market has a proper certificate.

It goes without saying that the top priority everywhere is the safety of meals in the school cafeteria. With their own agricultural plots and greenhouses in place, schools could feed the kids five days a week with safe, high-quality, and fresh organic produce.

Greenhouses could be not just a source of nutrients essential for healthy eating but serve as a training center as well. School principals and future greenhouse personnel are, normally, the first ones to undergo training. Specialists at the Farm Service Center in Darakert have provided training for these individuals, teaching them how to prick out seedlings and organize the irrigation and maintenance processes.

In addition, now each greenhouse worker has at hand a special Guideline that provides a detailed account of the key varieties of cucumbers and tomatoes and outlines the nuances of looking after the plants and curing them if the need arises.

Surplus crops could be sold at the local market. The proceeds could be used to purchase additional products, as well as directed toward repairs and upkeep around the cafeteria.

The greenhouses, fitted out with state-of-the-art drip irrigation and heating systems, will be cropped with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and herbs.

Small greenhouse

Just about any kid has been wished good health on their birthday. But, to ensure they grow as healthy individuals, full of vim and energy, their diets should definitely contain fresh vegetables and herbs.

The pilot associated with building a small greenhouse has a specific objective – to help School No. 1 in the town of Vedi ensure that, regardless of weather conditions, the kids can receive a guaranteed supply of vitamins nearly all year round – right from the school bed.

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Harvest

In mid-June, Vedi’s School No. 1 arranged a gathering of schoolchildren, the motive being not a summer camp but to celebrate their first harvest. They call this ‘nubar’ in Armenia.

Despite being the smallest of the three greenhouses set up as part of the FAO pilot, its tomato harvest was really excellent this year.

A couple of years back, the school started growing potatoes, and some parents who are farmers would help with advice. They’d also planted several fruit-trees – prunes, apples, and apricots.

It turns out that many vegetables do not grow too well in the neighborhood of potatoes, so that would become a major concern for those at the school. Fortunately, the new irrigated greenhouse did the trick for them.

The school nutrition program was instituted in Vedi in 2013. Since then, a major portion of parent contributions has been going to the purchase of vegetables, which kids like so much.

“You should see them eat salads! Among the top favorites are fresh vegetables salad and vinegret. But a real surprise for us was to see how eagerly our children consume pickled vegetables”, says Principal Advard Papoyan.

“We’ve fallen in love with our greenhouse. My day starts with visiting the greenhouse, where I always caress the sprouts and say ‘good morning’ to the plants”.

Medium Greenhouse

The brand-new greenhouse at the main school in the Verin Artashat village will be used to grow more tomatoes than the cook is prepared to utilize in the cafeteria and the schoolchildren are able to consume.

Why so much, then? The thing is that the sale of surplus crops will help the educational facility in resolving its various existing problems.

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Harvest

“Sometimes the school does not have enough money to even buy chalk, let alone fund repairs to the cafeteria or upgrades to the school inventory”, confesses Principal Grigor Yesayan. “We all understand it’s been tough for the schools. But now I’m going to know by the start of a year, when it’s time to purchase 50 plates for the cafeteria, that the school has the funds for that”.

However, the school still lacks experience in sales for now. “The market is, of course, dominated by large vendors. But our produce is of higher quality. I don’t know what the prices will be, but we’ll always strive to make sure not a single tomato is wasted. We’ll make deals with supermarkets and buyers and work with processing enterprises. And, of course, we’ll be sharing our produce with neighboring schools”.

The economic effect from the construction of a greenhouse was first felt by personnel at the cafeteria of the school in Verin Artashat. Assisted by the steward, they look after the plantings. They get paid by the hour for doing this type of work, including during the summer break. “This extra income is a substantial aid for cooks at the cafeteria, who make just 13 000 to 14 000 drams (around USD27–29) per month”.

Large greenhouse

In tiny Armenia, not every school is lucky to own a large plot of unused land. For smaller educational facilities, most of which lack land and personnel, keeping a greenhouse is a tall order.

The FAO suggests turning for fresh and nutritious vegetables to a generous neighbor with a big greenhouse and rich harvests.

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Harvest

The school could only dream of running a large greenhouse of its own. “Everyone was surprised, as they’d hardly believed something like this was possible and the school could have a greenhouse of its own – and one this big at that. In fact, as far as I know, no one in Surenavan has a greenhouse”.

Workers at the school are just learning how to grow cucumbers and tomatoes. There are plans to ensure that fresh vegetables will appear on the tables nearly all year round at neighboring schools as well, with which the Surenavan school is going to share its rich harvests. Vegetables will be supplied to schools with no land for organizing a kitchen garden or a greenhouse. Surplus crops will be sold, and the proceeds will be directed toward ambitious projects.

Lessons from nature

«Nature is a book that one has to read and understand the right way, as understanding it the wrong way may result in great harm»

Mikael Nalbandian

As soon as a schoolchild sets foot into a greenhouse, they find themselves in a green domed kingdom filled with the scent of their native land and the aroma of ripening fruits. Afterwards, they will come in here more than once to look around, take part in sowing seeds, and help adults look after the plantings or water the beds. But it is the first sensation of an impressionable child, who is looking at the world with eyes wide open, that will imprint in their memory forever.

Greenhouses represent a symbiosis of nature and human thought. For children, watching plants grow and develop, as well as witnessing some of the latest technology operate (e.g., cutting-edge irrigation systems) is a unique opportunity for them to gain key practical skills and knowledge. Who knows, maybe the child will be able to infect with enthusiasm their parents, who, in turn, could come over to the school, have a “sneaky peek” at the state-of-the-art greenhouse, and then go back home and start a similar holding of their own.

This photo-book was prepared by the Social and Industrial Food Service Institute from Moscow (Russian Federation) during the implementation of the pilot "School food and nutrition program linked to the agricultural sector” in the Republic of Armenia.

The pilot is a part of the comprehensive project “Developing Capacity for Strengthening Food Security and Nutrition in Selected Countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia” that is funded by the Russian Federation and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The project seeks to promote cross-sectoral collaboration by providing adequate capacity to effectively pursue and manage coherence between agriculture, nutrition, health, education and social protection sectors. The cooperation comprises support to a wide array of development initiatives at regional and global level.