Food Female Hero

2
THE FEMALE FOOD HERO
Introduction
Although more than a quarter of world population is
comprised of rural women and their contribution is
huge inenhancing agricultural and rural development,
the UN estimate records that more than 500 billion of
rural women live in poverty.
According to statistics, 37,5% of Armenia’s population
lives in the rural communities, moreover, half of the
poverty-stricken people are women from rural areas.
This critical situation is also conditioned by the fact
that a large number of male population are leaving
for Russia for temporary work. In all Armenian
regions women live in difficult conditions, do hard
physical work, because of lack of access to different
agricultural and extension services, lack or outdated
agricultural machinery, women o en have to do
most of the agricultural labour manually and have
to be also involved in the marketing of their own
agricultural produce.
Despite the reforms which are being carried out in
Armenia, the agriculture sector is still very insecure.
This is conditioned by a number of problems such as
land and water resources scarcity, under-developed
industrial, market and social infrastructures, etc.
Circumstances like unfertile agricultural lands which
are more than half of the country’s surface, specifics
of the climatic zone such as abrupt weather patterns
changes, late spring and very o en early summer
frostbite, hail storms, droughts make Armenia a risky
zone for agriculture.
Although living in such unbelievably hard and
unbearable conditions, Armenian women - village
keepers, overcome hardship and difficulties with
stubbornness and unflagging courage, struggle
against natural disasters, cultivate crops, collect
harvest, participate in livestock care, carry out vital
functions in caring for their children and have a
big contribution into the community development,
they unfortunately stay in the background and go
unheeded whereas, the work they do is genuine
heroism and valour.

3
THE FEMALE FOOD HERO (FFH) COMPETITION
PROJECT INFORMATION
In the frame of the Oxfam GROW campaign, the FFH project was launched by OXFAM in 2012, Armenia.
The objective of the project is to encourage rural women in Armenia who are involved and have succeeded in
agriculture and farming activities, have made positive changes and promoted agricultural production in their
local communities.
The FFH project aims to:
√ reveal women who are involved in agriculture
production activities being part of community’s
sustainable development,
√ present the life of female smallholder farmers
whose activities lead to positive changes by
showing the best practices and cases of
overcoming their obstacles,
√ encourage women who are engaged in
ecologically friendly farm production and have
exceptional contribution to their own families and
communities’ development.
3

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES
Sofya Atabekyan is one of the active members of
“Tsaghkunq” agricultural consumer cooperative established
by Oxfam in Nerkin Tsaghkavan, Tavush province. Sofya
has a big family and she has been involved for 20 years in
farming production by cultivating vegetables, fruit and other
crops. Her harvest is particularly abundant in corn, tomatoes,
potatoes and greens.
She has obtained her organizational skills from the years of
working at kindergarten. Her husband helped her to raise
their three children, cultivate land and care for the livestock.
Now when her children are already grown–ups, they are of big
help to her which allows Sofya to spend more time working in
the new co-op’s greenhouse enterprise established by Oxfam
and its partners.
Sofya actively took part in all cooperative meetings, capacity
building training sessions and encouraged other active women
to unite and work for a good cause to the beneﬁt of their
cooperative and greenhouse social enterprise. She shares
the skills and knowledge she learned with her female co-op
members and put them into practice in her own farmland.
Sofya and her fellow co-op members are very proud and
inspired that they could cultivate high value tomato crop in
their new greenhouse.

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Svetlina Ghazaryan lives in Aknaghbyur village of
Tavush province and has an extended Armenian family with
5 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. She has been
engaged in farming activities since she was 17. Svetlina
cultivates corn and alfa alfa, she also grows and propagates
fruit trees, vegetables and potato in her backyard.
Svetlina’s husband is sick and she has to carry the burden
of her big family. With a special love and warm compassion
she combines the household duties with the consumer
cooperative and greenhouse care. She is lucky and happy to
live and work in a community where since 2010 Oxfam has
established different rural business infrastructures linking
them to the cooperative management structure. Among them
3 greenhouses in a form of social enterprise, one cold storage/
collection center for farmers’ fresh produce and also a new
farm lead research school which is to be linked and contribute
to the Regional Agricultural Support/Extension Center.
Due to her and more than 30 active co-op members’ efforts,
their accomplishments have become replicable.
New knowledge gained in the trainings on cultivation/
production and care on high value and resilient vegetable
crops, plentiful yield have enormously encouraged and united
the cooperative members.
Due to Svetlina’s consistent efforts, a number of problems
concerning cooperative operation were troubleshot. She is

7
very proud of her cultivated high value tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and as she tells the only way to
achieve this is through hard, loving and devoted work.

Astghik Ghushchyan is one of the most active female
members of “Haghtanak” agricultural consumer cooperative
which was established by Oxfam in 2012 and unites 37 farmers,
including 26 women. Having migrated from the neighboring
Tsalka province, Georgia and settled down in Haghtanak
community, Astghik started cultivation and her income
generating agricultural activities. She grows traditional crops
in her backyard such as tomato, green beans, onion, cucumber
and potato which is mainly for household consumption. As
Astghik noted, one of the main accomplishments is the
knowledge regarding new agricultural practices and methods
of crop cultivation, treatment and care which was provided
by the experts from Oxfam partner organization the Scientiﬁc
Center for Vegetable and Industrial Crops, within the project
funded by OXFAM and the Austrian Development Agency
(ADA).
As she notes: “Before this project we had no idea that one day
it might be possible to have an agricultural cooperative in our
community and to be involved as a coop member. We could
only dream of a greenhouse as a social enterprise.”
Due to Oxfam’s project entitled “Improvement of smallholder
farmers’ agricultural activities in Tavush and Vayots Dzor
provinces through agricultural cooperatives and value chain

9
development” which is funded by ADA, the co-op
members gained a wide range of practical knowledge
and skills which they successfully use in their everyday
life. With enthusiasm, Astghik says, “In the cultivation
of our own arable lands in order to treat and care
for vegetables, we use new practices and methods we
didn’t know before. We enjoy positive and tangible
results, income and high quality of the yield.” Astghik
appreciates trainings in the new methods of crop
cultivation rather than income as obtained knowledge
and practical skills are more sustainable for her. She
also makes note of the project’s positive impact on
people’s important values like dignity, mutual respect,
women’s self-esteem. As to Astghik, collective work
around greenhouse management has promoted
women’s solidarity and unity. They are inspired to
work in the greenhouse even more and by their work
they are ready to contribute signiﬁcantly to their own
household management and development and well-
being of their community. Astghik adds ”It’s due to
this project that co-op female members’ life has got
a new meaning, they have established close ties with
each other, as well as have become more considerate
towards each other, they are decision-makers.”

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Liana Silikyan is an active female member of “Ptghavan”
consumer agricultural cooperative established in 2011 in
Ptghavan community, Tavush province. In 1988, during
Artsakh war Liana moved to Armenia, Lori province and a er
she got married, she moved to Ptghavan. As the name of the
community “Ptghavan” implies, the people here are mainly
engaged in farming and horticulture. Liana cultivates corn,
sunflower, wheat, barley, grows fruit trees and vegetables.
She is a loving and heedful mother of three children who
combines household duties with agricultural work. Liana is
also engaged in cattle husbandry which allows her to provide
her family with fresh and nourishing dairy products. Liana
has recently learned to drive and she is always there to
help her villagers in transportation matters by making their
agricultural work more efficient. Although, as Liana noted,
people in Ptghavan have always been famous for their farming
and horticulture traditions, all trainings and experience
exchange meetings with international experts arranged in the
frame of Oxfam cooperative were useful and worthy of praise.
Liana Silikyan has been involved in all initiatives from the very
first day of the cooperative’s establishment, she tries to apply
her knowledge and skills to the benefit of community and
cooperative’s empowerment. Rafik Ohanyan, the president of
the cooperative spoke about Liana, “I wonder how a fragile
woman can be engaged in horticulture activities like water

11
irrigation, harvesting and a number of other hard
agricultural work and at the same time participate
actively in the activities of consumer cooperative, run
a skillful husbandry and bring up wonderful children.
If it were possible by a hidden camera to shoot a ﬁlm
about one of Liana’s busy working days, and see how
and how much work she handles during a day that
would go without saying. She deserves the title of
Female Food Hero since such women are exceptional
not only in our cooperative and in our community
but also in the whole country.”

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES ConsumercooperativemembersfromAtchajur,Tavushprovince
presented their female hero Hasmik Alikhanyan with
inﬁnite tenderness and big deference, “Meet one of our most
responsible, committed and hardworking members.”
Hasmik Alikhanyan lost her husband when she was young and
she had to struggle for her family living on her own, to bring
up admirable children trying to do her best for her children’s
worriless childhood and adolescence.
Today Hasmik is a great grandmother who is proud of her 9
grandchildren’s achievements. She is involved in horticulture
and animal husbandry activities. Hasmik grows vegetables,
diﬀerent trees like apple, pear, cherry, plum and also walnut
trees in her backyard. From her backyard’s yield she makes
homemade vodka, wine and delicious sun-dried fruit. She
notes with pleasure and pride that this year she has collected
up to 1 tone of green beans.
As it was noted by Armenak Gasparyan, the president of
agricultural cooperative and other cooperative members,
Hasmik Alikhanyan took active part in all initiatives and
discussions.
She also inspires female members by advising and setting a
good example for them. This is how female members of the
cooperative speak about Hasmik ”Hasmik’s every single word
is precious. She is always ready to share her knowledge and
experience with us. We are happy to have such a woman in our

13
cooperative and learn from her every day.”
“I have been running my household for quite a long
time and I haven’t faced any serious obstacles so
far. Nature is always changeable, full of unexpected
surprises. However, if one works hard and has a
precise plan of agricultural activities, land will never
let him down. A diligent and hard working person will
be always generously paid back.”

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Anush Sargsyan was born in Aygehovit but many years
ago she moved to Ditavan and now she can hardly imagine
her life without Ditavan village, ”Little Switzerland,” as Anush
likes to call it due to its cozy and unique nature which has all
necessary conditions for tourism development.
Anush is engaged in different types of farming activities.
She cultivates corn and tobacco, grows fruit trees (apple,
cherry, pear, mulberry, fig, sweet cherry) receives plentiful
yields of fruit crops and organic vegetables. Two years ago
she got engaged in the cultivation of non-traditional resistant
vegetable crops such as broccoli, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts,
tomato cherries and chili peppers.
Anush is also engaged in animal husbandry, she keeps around
twenty heads of cattle and about thirty chickens. She said that
unfortunately she was forced to slaughter her pigs. “Farmers
are used to earning their livelihood by hard work,” Anush
added.
Among some improvements in social infrastructure of
Ditavan village she also stated about the significance of
establishment of agricultural consumer cooperative which was
recently established with the support of Oxfam in Armenia.
The cooperative has unified smallholder farmers of Ditavan
village around their common issues they have faced while
being engaged in farming activities. As Anush states, though

15
the cooperative is in its initial development stage, all
cooperative members are expecting the upcoming
establishment of the community greenhouse in the
form of social enterprise within Oxfam Economic
Justice Programme which will signiﬁcantly contribute
to the viability of Ditavan cooperative in the upcoming
years.
Anush Sarkisyan has worked in the community library
since she was 22. She speaks about her job with big
inspiration,”My world is in books, I love reading,
discovering new things and getting new knowledge.”
Anush also writes poetry and tries to express her
feelings and experience. In one of her poems she
wrote lines full of optimism towards her community.
“…We are full of joy
’cause our dreams come true,
We bow low to our patriots
Who make Ditavan an earthly paradise…”
There are many people like Anush from Ditavan, who
stay in their village and are eager to contribute to its
prosperity by their daily farm hard work.

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Jemma Vardanyan stands out among the staﬀ of Sevkar
agricultural consumer cooperative due to her activeness,
commitment and work style. It has been 32 years since Jemma
Vardanyan works as the Director of Sevkar Cultural Center
and she does her best for keeping the cultural life in the
community alive and ensuring the participation of youth in it.
She willingly combines her job and cultural activities with her
favorite occupation - land cultivation.
Jemma Vardanyan got interested in land cultivation and loved
it since she was an adolescent. She remembers how she
followed her father doing cultivation works in their garden
when she was in the 10th grade at school. “My father explained
his every single action. He taught me the technique of growing
and tending of each plant, how to plough the soil, how o en
to water it. I helped him with great pleasure and did all type of
land cultivation works with love”, she says.
Jemma engages in animal husbandry, beekeeping and
horticulture. Jemma Vardanyan enthusiastically speaks about
the establishment of the agricultural consumer cooperative
in her community, the joint achievements and success of the
cooperative members.
“I am happy to be one of the ﬁrst people in the community
who believed in the success of the cooperative and convinced
others to believe in that idea too. A er joining the cooperative

17
we acquired new skills and up-to-date knowledge. For
me, the new practice of growing non-traditional plants
such as tomatoes, peppers and diﬀerent types of
cabbage, as well as the construction of a greenhouse
in our community in 2012 were grand events – real
wonder for us”, she says.
Jemma Vardanyan assures us that the cooperative
has become a unique platform that unites people for
one goal. Hence they utilize their entire potential,
contribute their love and soul towards achieving
better results and bringing signiﬁcant changes in the
community people’s life.

Margarita Karapetian is one of the active business
ladies in Artchis village. She engages in animal husbandry
and land cultivation. She grows corn on land plots she has
rented and gets up to 5-8 tons of harvest. She also owns fruit
orchards where she tends for different fruit trees: apples,
pears, walnuts, plums, figs, cherries. Margarita makes thin
roll-up sheets of sour plum puree (ttu lavash) and dried fruits
and beautifully designs them in the form of natural flower
bunches. She actively participates at different agricultural
activities, even those which require physical strength and
significant energy, such as haying. Carpet weaving and knitting
are her hobbies.
Margarita Karapetian thinks that every Armenian woman is a
hero: they all possess enormous hidden potential which can
lead to big achievements if revealed and properly utilized.
She claims that the newly established agricultural cooperative
that unites everyone and supplies them with fresh strength
of acting and creating is a major stimulus for Artchis women
farmers to reveal their potential and develop it.

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Hasmik Ghazaryan’s family moved to Zedea village
of Vayots Dzor province from Yerevan in 1980s. Hasmik
Ghazaryan is one of the active members of “Hreshtak”
agricultural consumer cooperative. She le behind the cozy
life in the city and has big affection for the difficult life in the
village full of chores. She thinks that freedom of village life,
as well as indigence urge people to be creative. She strives to
provide her family with organic food and fresh dairy products.
Hasmik Ghazaryan has a pedagogical background and teaches
at secondary school in her village. Hasmik has four children.
Due to the support of her husband and daughters Hasmik
manages to organize her work in such a way that she is able
to allocate enough of her time to the greenhouse. It has been
a year since she joined the cooperative. She participated in all
trainings and meetings where she acquired new knowledge
and skills.
The greenhouse is a novelty for both our village and the
province. Before we could only dream of it. When certain
questions arise during trainings, we either consult each other
or call the experts of the Scientific Center by phone to consult
them, Hasmik Ghazaryan says.
The tomatoes and peppers we grow are delicious. All of our
customers are very satisfied and we periodically receive new
orders from Vayk and Zedea, she proudly added and showed
some photos of the greenhouse harvest she took with her

21
mobile phone.
I am mostly impressed by the fact that with funds
received from the proﬁt of the greenhouse harvest
sales co-op members decided to reconstruct the
community roads, purchase a vehicle for transporting
the produce to the customers in time and safely.

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Nushik Janoyan actively participates in all activities
of the “Azatek” agricultural consumer cooperative since its
inception. She was born in Azatek and has five children. She
is a strict mother and she supported all her children to get
higher education. She has been cultivating an apricot orchard
for twenty-two years and receives rich harvest. She used to
cultivate vegetables about ten years ago, but a er a snake bite
she was scared to go into the field again. Since the cooperative
establishment in 2012 and the greenhouse construction in
2013 Nushik Janoyan has returned to her favourite occupation.
She attended all trainings and proudly united all the other
cooperative members as one team. The interest-free loans
provided by the “Horizon” Fund have extremely inspired
and motivated the co-op members. The loans enabled these
women to more effectively organize the agricultural activities:
purchase medication and seeds, pay the land rent and cover
transportation costs. Nushik Janoyan considered trainings to
be very important since they contributed to better organization
of activities such as growing, care, treatment and harvesting
of high-value crops in the greenhouse, as well as on private
land plots.
Nushik Janoyan assures that the cooperative members turn to
the village mayor or community council in case of any problem.
Theestablishmentofsun-dryingfacilityandatomatoprocessing
workshop was discussed. Their establishment could also tackle

23
the consumption of rich harvest in the market. They
haven’t come up with initial estimate on this yet, but
have clearly decided to purchase agricultural tools,
pesticides and fertilizers. Being a distant community,
Azatek has beneﬁted from the visits, contribution
and contacts of the representatives of international
organizations, experts of scientiﬁc centers for the
village residents. This project is new to the village and
the greenhouse equipped with up-to-date technology
together with the cultivation of high-value plants are
things that village residents are really proud of.

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Bavakan Melikyan is from “Vanqadzor” consumer
cooperative in Gomq village, Vayots Dzor province. There are
many refugee and displaced families that moved to Gomq
village twenty three years ago. Bavakan Melikyan’s family is one
of those families. She has two children and two grandchildren:
she has been engaged in agriculture, particularly animal
husbandry for 23 years. Bavakan Melikyan is currently the
Head of Culture House in the community and she knows well
what responsibility means and what is fundamental to success
in business. Her involvement in the coop’s activities has given
her strength and new quality in her life. She has become more
decisive in supporting her friends, making joint decisions and
implementing programs.
‘The greenhouse establishment is the ﬁrst initiative in the
history of our community. We have achieved good results
due to the joint eﬀorts of the cooperative active members and
frequently organized trainings. We haven’t been involved in
such kind of a project, where we can get both crop and income.
This is a good way to earn your living in the community and
the only reason to stay in the community. We, women, get on
well with each other, discuss our daily plans, learn from each
other and work together with pleasure,’ Bavakan Melikyan tells
in details and adds that her family members always support
her in all her initiatives.

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES Anahit Markosyan is well-known in Zaritap community
not only as the Creative Director of the Cultural Center, but an
active and experienced member of the agricultural consumer
cooperative operating in Zaritap. She is able to combine all
household work with the cultural activities and work in the
cooperative.
Anahit Markosyan is engaged in horticulture, cattle-breeding
and beekeeping. She cultivates vegetables and fruit-trees like
walnut trees, apple-trees, pear-trees, apricot-trees and so
on. Her favourite business is beekeeping though. People say
that she started with only one bee-hive now amounting to fi y
already.
“You should be very careful with bees: they are fragile insects
and are in need of continuous attention and care. Their
diligence, discipline, distribution of roles and tasks inside the
bee-hive are just shocking. Any work connected with bees is a
pleasure and has a soothing effect”, she says.
Anahit Markosyan has 4 children and 9 grandchildren. One
of her biggest achievements, as she mentions, is the fact
that all her children got higher education and are practicing
professionals in the fields of environment, healthcare and
pedagogy.
Anahit Markosyan attaches a big importance to the consumer
cooperative’s existence in her village. The cold storage and
the greenhouse established within the cooperative open big

27
opportunities for the residents of the village and can
bring radical changes into their lives. Anahit says
that the greenhouse is already operational and the
cooperative members have planted seedlings in it.
In a year’s time they expect to get the ﬁrst harvest
but before that happens they have other things to
complete. “We need to increase our knowledge and
skills to better cultivate high-value crops and to get a
rich harvest. We should work continuously to maintain
what we have and develop it further”, she says.

Sirvard Manukyan is one of the active members of
Hermon agricultural consumer cooperative. She engages in
cattle-breeding. She tends a er cows, calves and steers with
great care and attention.
Sirvard’s favourite business is horticulture. The home-adjacent
garden she owns is planted with walnut, apple, pear and plum-
trees. She collects diﬀerent herbs and berries during the warm
season of the year. Sirvard collects up to one ton of hip-rose
until October of every year.
Sirvard is an expert on herbs and knows very well which
diseases those herbs can heal.
Sirvard has 4 children and 13 grandchildren: the joy of her life.
Even during the busiest times of agricultural season Sirvard is
able to spend time with her family, deal with household work
and, at the same time, attend all meetings and events held by
the cooperative.

THE FEMALE FOOD HEROES As the president of the consumer cooperative in Yeghegis,
Anahit Manukyan claims all women members of the
cooperative deserve encouragement and appraisal. Every one
of these women has no equals in the area she works, however
Greta Ayvazyan can still be named as the most active
and exemplary members of the cooperative.
Greta’s main occupation is horticulture and husbandry. She
owns two orchards where she mainly grows different sorts of
apples, walnuts and so on. She makes delicious canned food,
dried fruit and other sweets using the crop from the orchards.
Greta takes care of around forty hens and turkeys and other
domestic livestock. She has been engaged in beekeeping for
7 years now and tends for 30 beehives starting from only 2
initially. “My first beehive was merely a honeybee colony that
I occasionally entrapped while making hay in the field. My
second beehive was a gi . If possible I would like to increase
the number of my beehives since bee-keeping is my favourite
occupation,” Greta says.
Greta is fond of growing flowers and her selection includes
different types of flowers including roses, lilies, bluebells,
asters, tulips, gladioluses and so on. The corner in her orchard
decorated with colourful flowers is the favourite place for both
Greta and the village people. “If I get tired of doing other
types of work, with flowers and bees I relax and enjoy myself:,
she notes. Greta’s husband and son o en migrate for labour

31
purposes and during most months of the year Greta
cultivates land which includes fertilizing, irrigation,
tree trimming, crop sort-out and a number of other
gardening activities. «Fall is my favourite season
because this is when I ﬁnally enjoy the results of my
hard work. For us the fall is a busy and hard-working
season, but at the same time it is an ample season in
full swing”, Greta says.

ABOUT OXFAM IN ARMENIA
Oxfam has established its presence in Armenia since 1994 and implements humanitarian and development
projects in around 165 remote border rural communities in 6 provinces of Armenia. Oxfam is one of those
organizations that through its programs highly contributed to the development of agriculture in Armenia,
particularly in promoting agricultural policies and investments. Within its “Economic Justice” program Oxfam
in Armenia, alongside local partners, has been challenging inequality and promoting sustainable livelihoods
amongst vulnerable and refugee communities in Tavush and Vayotz Dzor provinces. About 3000 of small-
scale farmers in 21 target communities in Tavush and Vayotz Dzor provinces have seen their incomes rise by
up to 30% due to involvement in 21 Agricultural consumer cooperatives established by Oxfam since 2010.
Around 1800 women are members of these cooperatives cultivating non-traditional resilient crops suitable to
grow in unfavourable and rapidly changing climate.
Small-holder farmers benefit also from new community agri-business infrastructures such as 8 cold storage/
collection centres for farmers’ fresh produce as well as climate adaptive 39 green houses in form of social
enterprises. Oxfam also promotes development of rural business enterprises in a form of community fruit
processing plant in Ayrum community which should source the raw materials (forest fruits/berries) from the
poor farmers/villagers. All small-holder farmers, members to agriculture cooperatives have got access to
loans provided by Horizon Fund (MFI) partnering with Oxfam.
In 2011 Oxfam Armenia initiated the establishment of multi-stakeholder Agriculture Alliance
(AA), the national platform in Agriculture with fourteen international and local organizations the main actors
in rural agricultural development sector involved in this fora. The Alliance is a platform for joint advocacy
and lobbying work at the National level for public policies that ensure greater food security, address climate
change and improve nutrition across the country and promote resilient agriculture. AA advocate for more
governments investment in new adaptation technologies, for more affordable financial resources (loans with
low interest rates) for small farmers, and for adoption of agriculture insurance in Armenia.

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