The area of irrigated land in the Stavropol Territory has increased 6,5 times over the past eight years, from 23 thousand to 150 thousand hectares. This is reported by TASS with reference to the head of the region, Vladimir Vladimirov.
The governor presented such data at a working meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Vladimirov recalled that they had not been involved in the development of land reclamation for more than 30 years, from 1982 to 2013. According to him, because of this, reclamation areas by that time had decreased from 400 thousand to 23 thousand hectares.
It was possible to return part of the irrigated areas due to state support and well-coordinated work of farmers. The Governor recalled that 1,2 billion rubles are allocated annually for the development of irrigation systems in the region. This allows them to provide them with 21 thousand hectares of new land per year. According to Vladimirov's forecasts, in 2024 the irrigated areas in the region will increase by 100 thousand hectares. He also noted that "everyone who worked in land reclamation last year had a very good economic result."
Putin, in turn, promised that the authorities would allocate seven billion rubles a year for the development of land reclamation in the country.