Recently, the State Duma of the Russian Federation hosted a round table "Ensuring Russia's technological sovereignty in the agro-industrial complex", organized by two specialized committees of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on agricultural issues and on industry and trade with the support of the industry association "InterAgroTech", reports Gazeta.ru.
Among the measures and activities necessary to ensure the technological sovereignty of Russia, the following were proposed.
Preparation and maintenance of a list of critical technologies for the agro-industrial complex
For a clear understanding of the country's technological level in the agro-industrial complex, its comparison with the level of leading foreign countries, understanding the directions for further development, it is necessary to update, systematize, as well as systematically and systematically develop, and maintain a list of critically important technologies in the agro-industrial complex.
State support for strategic technological areas of the agro-industrial complex
To ensure Russia's technological leadership in the global agribusiness market, it is necessary to develop a set of measures for the development and state support of the strategic areas of the 4th industrial revolution: artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of things and others.
The use of new technologies makes it possible to move to a fundamentally new level of management, to significantly increase the efficiency of agricultural enterprises.
According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Vasily Shpak: “The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade pays special attention to supporting promising intelligent technologies developed by domestic manufacturers of agricultural equipment. Such solutions are both a driver for the innovative development of the agro-industrial complex and a guarantee of sustainable food and industrial security of the country.”
Improving the efficiency of interaction between participants in the agro-industrial complex
To improve the efficiency of the implementation of import substitution, the practice of uniting industry participants on one platform is necessary.
A good example of such an industry association is the creation of the InterAgroTech association, which brought together agricultural producers, software developers, manufacturers of electronics, equipment and components to develop joint solutions, localize import substitution of foreign products and, first of all, the component base used in agricultural machinery, create and implement revolutionary technologies, interaction with the state, etc.
Support and regulation of end-to-end projects
One of the main instruments for ensuring Russia’s technological sovereignty in the field of agriculture, according to the participants in the discussion, is Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 27, 2021 No. 1619 “On Approval of the Rules for Providing Subsidies from the Federal Budget to Russian Companies Russian products of the radio-electronic industry (on end-to-end projects).
A cross-cutting project is a full cycle of work on the development of innovative products, which includes research and development, organization of production, creation of embedded software, adaptation of existing software and launching products on the market. Cross-cutting projects that meet the stated criteria can count on direct state subsidies in the amount of up to 4 billion rubles a year. Thus, within the framework of the program of end-to-end projects, the Petersburg Tractor Plant plans to introduce 2024 unmanned tractors based on the Kirovets K-10M model by 7 for the needs of the country. However, there are a number of legislative problems in this area.
Issues of legislative regulation of the movement of unmanned agricultural machinery
Today in Russia, unmanned vehicles are in full swing in the fields. Moreover, domestic autopilots of higher levels of autonomy are expected to appear in the near future. To do this, it is necessary to prepare appropriate legislative support in advance to ensure the uninterrupted nature of the process of introducing smart agricultural machinery.
Legislative regulation of leasing schemes
Also of great importance in ensuring the technological sovereignty of Russia is a set of measures to improve the rules for preferential leasing for buyers of agricultural equipment, regulated by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 811 dated June 3, 2020 providing the lessee with a discount on the advance payment under leasing agreements for specialized machinery and (or) equipment.
An increase in the interest rate on preferential leasing allows high-tech products and digital solutions to receive state support for implementation and, most importantly, to scale the most promising projects of Russian developers across the country. As a result, it makes it possible to provide agricultural enterprises with advanced technologies and significantly increase their efficiency.
However, there are a number of problems in the resolution that require prompt response, changes and preparation of relevant legislative and regulatory legal acts. In particular, at the stage of introducing a new product, it is necessary to be able to test it to the maximum number of end users by partially compensating their costs for a time-limited promotion of these products to the market.
It is also proposed to stop leasing support for foreign solutions.
Mechanism for monitoring the implementation of decisions
Proposals from industry participants on the formation of a set of measures to ensure technological sovereignty in the agro-industrial complex will be accepted for another week, after which the final list of measures and the timing of their implementation will be formed. To do this, it was decided to create a working group with the participation of representatives of relevant Duma committees, ministries and participants in the agro-industrial complex.
According to Olga Uskova: “We call this the mechanism of new reality commissars. Without the Duma, we cannot cope with these tasks. Their customer is the people, and such a format will unite all participants in the process, the state, production, farmers, etc. into a single semantic block.