Situation Report on Chlorpyrifos in Armenia

Agriculture is one of the key contributors to the Armenian economy and the main source of employment. It accounted for about 13.94% of GDP in 2018. The steady decline in GDP in agriculture since 2017 in the overall structure of Armenia's gross product in 2021 reached 10.2%.

The decline in agriculture is partly due to the difficult epidemic situation of COVID-19 throughout the country and the involvement of Armenia in hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and a number of territories of Armenia in 2020-2021 were affected.

The history of registration and use of chlorpyrifos in Armenia begins in the mid-1970s, when Armenia was part of the USSR. Decisions on the use of pesticides were made centrally at the level of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The implementation body within the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR - Agricultural Chemistry, which was represented in Armenia by ArmSelkhozKhimiya, was responsible for the supply, distribution and control of the use of pesticides. After independence, pesticides were dealt with by the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia. Currently, this function is carried out by the Ministry of Economy and the Food Safety Inspection Body of the Republic of Armenia, in particular the Phytosanitary Department.
 
Armenia does not produce pesticides, including chlorpyrifos. All pesticides are supplied by local supply companies and individuals i.e. personal providers. Every year the volume of supplies of preparations containing chlorpyrifos to Armenia increases. Only in 2021 there was decrease in volume of chlorpyrifos imported in Armenia due to the pandemic situation. However, in 2022, 56 trade names of chlorpyrifos containing pesticides compared with 24 in 2021 were already registered and allowed to use.  Chlorpyrifos containing preparations were imported in 2021 from Belgium, India, China and Ukraine in amounts of  89344  liters and 12 000 kg in 2021. In 2022, 16 companies supply preparations containing chlorpyrifos.

In Armenia, chlorpyrifos-based preparations are widely used to control a number of pests on crops such as wheat, barley, sugar beet, eggplant, pumpkin, cabbage, radish, green peas, pepper, carrot, cucumber, tomato, zucchini, watermelon, melon etc.
 
This project relates to the Sustainable Development Goals 2, 3, 6, 8, 14, and 15.
 
Special thanks to IPEN's Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia (EECCA) Regional Coordinator Dr. Olga Speranskaya and EECCA Regional Hub Eco-Accord, and the lead organization developing this report, AWHHE, for their important contributions to the development and finalization of the project.