Armenia has 486,000 hectares of arable land, about 16.5 % of the nation's total area. In 1991 Armenia imported about 65 % of its food. About 10 % of the work force, which is predominantly urban, is employed in agriculture, which in 1991 provided 25.6 % of the nation's NMP. In 1990 Armenia became the first Soviet republic to pass a land privatization law, and from that time Armenian farmland shifted into the private area at a faster rate than in any other republic.

By 1992 privatization of the state and collective farms, which had controlled Armenian agriculture in the Soviet time, had put 64 % of cultivated fields, 79 % of orchards, and 92 % of vineyards in the hands of private farmers. The program yielded a 15 % increase in agricultural output between 1990 and 1991.

The principal agricultural products are grains mostly wheat and barley, potatoes, vegetables, grapes, berries, cotton, sugar beets, tobacco, figs, and olives. In 1989 Armenia produced 200,000 tons of grain, 265,000 tons of potatoes, 485,000 tons of vegetables, 115,000 tons of sugar beets, 170,000 tons of fruit, 120,000 tons of grapes, 106,000 tons of meat, 490,000 tons of milk, and 560,000 tons of eggs.