Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the region Alexander Zaitsev took part in a meeting of the committee on agrarian issues, land relations, ecology and nature management of the Saratov Regional Duma, during which the prospects for the development of the reclamation complex were discussed.
The Saratov region is historically one of the largest regions in terms of the area of artificial irrigation. Currently, the region has 257,3 thousand hectares of potentially irrigated land, of which irrigation from the state irrigation system is carried out on an area of 115 thousand hectares, 31 thousand hectares - estuary irrigation.
Over the period from 2014 to 2021, more than 60,0 thousand hectares of irrigated land were restored and put into operation. Such good results were achieved thanks to state support for reimbursement of costs incurred.
This year, within the framework of the federal project "Export of products of the agro-industrial complex", the region has spent 180 million rubles from the federal budget, the commissioning of irrigated lands amounted to 1 hectares. It is planned that in the second half of the year, an additional 972,4 thousand hectares of irrigated land will be introduced.
Since June 1 of this year, the ministry has been accepting documents for 2022 for participation in the State Program for the effective involvement of agricultural land in the turnover and the development of the reclamation complex of the Russian Federation. Within the framework of this program, financing of the regions of the region is envisaged in a new direction - for the preparation of land surveying projects and for the conduct of cadastral works. The term for the implementation of the program is 2022-2031.
For reference
Irrigated fields produce the bulk of vegetables, potatoes, and forage crops. In recent years, the sowing of corn for grain and soybeans has been increasing annually, the development of horticulture with the use of drip irrigation has intensified.