All-Russian Agronomic Conference
On February 6, the All-Russian Agronomic Conference was held as part of the International Exhibition Agrofarm-2019.
CROP PLANS
On February 6, the All-Russian Agronomic Conference was held as part of the International Exhibition Agrofarm-2019. At an event with the participation of the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture, representatives of the State Duma and regional governing bodies of the agro-industrial complex, the results of agricultural development in 2018 were summed up, as well as tasks for the near future were outlined.
RESULTS AND PROSPECTS
One of the priorities in the development of agricultural production by 2024, First Deputy Minister Dzhambulat Khatuov called ensuring stable grain collection at the level of 137,5 million tons with the possibility of exporting more than 55 million tons per year.
To achieve these indicators, regional agro-industrial complex management bodies need to audit unused agricultural land and ensure their introduction into circulation.
Also in 2019, the regions were tasked with a threefold increase in the area of liming of soils, up to 775 thousand hectares, using state support measures.
As noted during the event, last year, despite difficult weather conditions, due to the use of modern agricultural technologies, the Russian agro-industrial complex showed decent results, and records were set in the collection of individual crops. Thus, according to preliminary estimates, 19,2 million tons of oilseeds were collected: the gross harvest of sunflower was 12,6 million tons, soybeans - 3,9 million tons, rapeseed - 1,98 million tons.
For the first time, the gross harvest of fresh greenhouse vegetables exceeded 1 million tons. While maintaining the pace of development of the industry, domestic farmers in the next 3-4 years will be able to meet the country's domestic needs for greenhouse vegetables.
DIGITALIZATION OF THE INDUSTRY
This relevant topic was highlighted in his speech by Roman Nekrasov, Director of the Department of Plant Production, Mechanization, Chemicalization and Plant Protection of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.
He emphasized that agriculture in terms of the pace of implementation of information technology is one of the most dynamic areas of the modern economy. In this regard, the Ministry of Agriculture is implementing a departmental project “Digital Agriculture”. Project goal: transformation of agriculture through the introduction of digital technologies and platform solutions to ensure a technological breakthrough in the agro-industrial complex and to achieve a two-fold increase in labor productivity at digital agricultural enterprises by 2021.
The director of the plant growing department presented the pilot regions (including: Belgorod, Samara regions, the Republic of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Mordovia, etc.), the fields of which will carry out systematic work on the introduction of digital technologies so that subsequently best practices can be replicated throughout the country.
IMPROVING UNLESS SUPPORT
In 2019, 11,34 billion rubles were allocated to provide unrelated support in crop production.
Talking about the principles of distributing this amount between agricultural producers, the director of the plant growing department indicated that, as before, subsidies would be provided to farms engaged in the cultivation of grain, legumes, and fodder crops. Producers of seed potatoes, seeds of vegetables of open ground, corn, sugar beets, sunflowers, flax, technical hemp will also receive support.
At the same time, the amount of payments will be increased by 15% to those enterprises that insure their sown area. Thus, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation plans to stimulate the development of agricultural insurance in the country.
Additional funds are allocated for the development of another important area recognized by the agency as one of the priorities for the coming years: the organization of work on liming acidic soils. According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, there are about 30% of such soils in Russia, liming will become an important stage in the work to increase their fertility. For farms that are actively involved in this activity, subsidies are provided with a coefficient of 2.0.
One of the important conditions for obtaining a subsidy will be the use by the agricultural company of seeds of only those varieties or hybrids that are included in the State Register of Selection Achievements and approved for use in the region where the cultivation is carried out. In this case, the varietal and sowing qualities of the seed material must comply with GOST R 52325-2005.
In addition, the allocation of support funds will be affected by the geographical factor. For farms of the Non-Black Earth Zone of Russia (located in areas prone to droughts and waterlogging), as well as the Siberian Federal District, Far Eastern Federal District, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, subsidies will be paid with a raising coefficient of 1,7.
But the regions with the most favorable climatic conditions (Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Tambov, Rostov regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories) will not receive a subsidy in the field of crop production this year (with the exception of the share distributed based on the intensity of crop area insurance) .
LAW PROJECTS
An important area of work of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation is legislative activity. As Roman Nekrasov noted, in 2019 the Ministry of Agriculture plans to participate in the preparation and adoption of the following legislative and regulatory acts:
• Draft Law "On Amendments to the Law" On Seed Growing "and some legislative acts of the Russian Federation;
• The bill on state supervision in the field of safe handling of pesticides and agrochemicals;
• Departmental by-laws for the implementation of the Federal Law of July 21.072014, 206 No. XNUMX-ФЗ On Plant Quarantine;
• The draft Federal Law “On Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses (in terms of specifying the composition of the offense provided for in Article 9.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, as well as the powers of bodies exercising state supervision in the field of technical condition of self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment );
• Amendments to the State Program for the Development of Agriculture and Regulation of Agricultural Products, Raw Materials and Food Markets.
ACUTE TOPICS
The year 2018 was remembered by agricultural producers as a serious increase in the prices of fuels and lubricants. But part of the costs still managed to be compensated: at the insistence of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, 5 billion rubles were allocated from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation for the purchase of diesel fuel for agricultural work, these funds were sent to 79 regions of the country.
As Roman Nekrasov emphasized, the Ministry of Agriculture is now constantly monitoring the situation on the fuel and lubricants market, and if an aggravation occurs, it will again try to intervene to mitigate the consequences for farmers.
No less carefully, the department monitors the situation in the market of mineral fertilizers. Until mid-November 2018, an agreement was reached between chemical concerns and the Ministry of Agriculture on fixing fertilizer prices for Russian agricultural enterprises.
But with the beginning of the new year, signals began to come from the regions about a new round of price hikes (according to preliminary data, by February growth in certain positions amounted to about 6%). According to the executive director of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers Maxim Kuznetsov, most likely, the small difference in numbers is explained by an increase in VAT, as well as an increase in tariffs for rail services. According to a representative of the chemical industry, there are currently no prerequisites for a rise in the price of fertilizers themselves directly, even a slight decrease in cost is not ruled out.
QUALITY OF RUSSIAN AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT
Considerable time during the meeting was devoted to discussing the need to improve the quality of Russian agricultural machinery and, in particular, the importance of testing each model coming off the assembly line of a domestic enterprise.
As Jambulat Khatuov pointed out, the successful and timely passing of tests today will be one of the main selection criteria when providing subsidies from the state for the purchase of agricultural machinery. Without exception, all new equipment will be tested at machine testing stations, whose specialists must promptly bring information about its shortcomings to manufacturers, which will allow them to be eliminated in a short time.
The first deputy minister also called on agricultural producers to provide sites for field trials of Russian tractors and combines in order to jointly bring domestic agricultural machinery to a new, highest level.
WEATHER
Gennady Alekseev, Deputy Director for Science of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Hydrometeorological Center of Russia, spoke about the weather conditions of the current winter and their impact on the future crop. He noted that sowing winter crops in 2018 in the Southern and North Caucasian districts passed during a period of prolonged lack of rainfall, in dry land, which could not but affect the quality of seedlings.
By January 2019, about 9% of the cultivated area (approximately 1,55 million hectares) was classified as problematic by specialists. But over the past month, the situation has improved markedly. At the beginning of February, poor crop conditions were recorded on an area of about 0,7 million ha. For comparison: in 2017, no more than 0,3 million hectares were classified as complex plots. Thus, according to the representative of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia, the forecast for the crop for the southern territories of the country is not the most optimistic yet.
In the whole country, the agrometeorological conditions for wintering winter crops were mostly satisfactory. In some places in the Lenin city, Novgorod, Smolensk, Tver, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Vologda, Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod regions, where under high snow cover (4045 cm or more) the soil freezing was small (2-10 cm), and in some places it remained melt, conditions were maintained for damage to winter crops due to evaporation.
But the most anticipated was, of course, information about the spring. According to the preliminary forecast of the Hydrometeorological Center, March in most regions of the country will be relatively warm (the temperature in the Central, Volga, North-West, in the main part of the Siberian and Ural federal districts is expected to be around and slightly above normal).
EXPECTATIONS FROM SEASON
Summing up the meeting, First Deputy Minister Dzhambulat Khatuov outlined the key indicators that the industry will strive for in the coming year. Thus, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation expects that the cultivated area in Russia will increase by 1,2 million hectares and amount to 80,5 million hectares.
The Russian agro-industrial complex is faced with the task of producing at least 108 million tons of grain, over 18 million tons of oilseeds, 41 million tons of sugar beets, about 7 million tons of potatoes, more than 6 million tons of vegetables in the public sector.
The main goals are identified, time to get to work.