Although the Armenian Ministry of Emergency organized tens of thousands of shots from its 164 anti-hail stations in more than 50 villages in the country’s Aragatsotn and Lori Provinces it was still impossible to avoid heavy hailstorms.

The Ministry has already reported that as a result of hail some crops in the town of Aparan and neighboring four villages in Aragatsotn Province have been damaged. On July 7, hail caused damage to a number of communities in Armenia’s Shirak and Tavush Provinces.

The Ministry of Agriculture informed that currently estimation of the damage is being done which will be published when clarified.

The spring and summer of 2014 were full of hailstorm events in all provinces of Armenia. In later May Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan visited the Lori Province after heavy hail in Stepanavan about a month before, promising to compensate the damage as much as possible.

Hail is one of the main factors of risk for Armenian agriculture. Its rate of damage at times is estimated at over 40 percent because of which financial structures are reluctant to introduce an insurance system for agriculture.

Source - http://armenianow.com/