Summary

SAI Armenia conducted a performance audit of the Program for Supporting the Consolidation of Agricultural Land in the Republic of Armenia for 2023-2025. The auditors noted that the farms owning agricultural land in the Republic of Armenia are mostly small ones with a status of the individual entrepreneur (96.3%) with an average land area of ​​1.53 hectares. Approximately half of the farms have three or more plots of land, and 20% of these have five or more plots. In this context, land consolidation has become key for improving the efficiency of agricultural structures. The audit found that the planned objectives had not been achieved. Specifically, the programmed land consolidation measure had not been implemented: 0 hectares were actually consolidated out of 1,363 hectares planned. Following the audit, the SAI proposed implementing a toolkit with parameters based on international best practices as part of ongoing land consolidation efforts. It was also proposed to leverage the potential of land consolidation tools within public policy measures related to large-scale infrastructure projects (e.g., construction of highways, railways, and water supply pipelines), environmental protection, and territorial development.