GAVAR, JUNE 23, NOYAN TAPAN. A nearly 40-day drought has already caused damage of about 47 bln drams (about 112 mln USD) to farms of Gegharkunik marz. Vanik Hovhannisian, head of the agricultural department of Gegharkunik regional administration, told NT correspondent about it. Spring cereals will not form ears and so farmers are going to use them as fodder. In the opinion of experts, the autumn grain and potato crops are also in danger. It is no accident that this year the harvest of grass crops started a month earlier - on June 10. The harvest from natural meadows and those under crops is also poor. According to V. Hovhannisian, over the last 7 years, 350-390 thousand tons of grass was annually cut in the marz, whereas this year's harvest will make 30% of it. Besides, in the previous years the local farms made about 24 thousand tons of straw, whereas this year's index will make only 1,000 tons. A dry weather may cause an outbreak of cattle's foot-and-mouth disease. In order to prevent it, during his recent visit to the marz, the RA Agriculture Minister Davit Lokian gave instructions to speed up the vaccination of cattle in Geghrakinik marz.

---