Hrach Berberyan, the president of the Agrarian-Rural Union of Armenia NGO, called to set up a special commission to find out why the wheat stem stop growing after reaching few centimeters.

“The commission should comprise of farmers and not importers. President of Russian Semena association Kuzmin should also be engaged in it,” Berberyan said, adding that examination should be conducted to find those in charge. “A crime has been committed and the guilty should be punished,” he told at a news conference on Monday.

The expert stressed about the loss of 12-15 percent of wheat, claiming that farmers have appeared in desperate situation, urging the government to free them from water tax and the commitment to return the wheat seeds to the state.

“There are 8 kinds of wheat seeds in Armenia, of which six have not been tested for correspondence to our climate conditions,” said he.

Berberyan claims the seed imported from Russia does not correspond to the climate condition of the region. The label on seed packages states it is intended for North Caucasus. He said the importers were either not aware of the issue or tried to do other thing.

Berberyan brought with him the labels, showing that there is no contact and other necessary information on them.