At a press conference in the House of Journalists, Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Omsk Region Nikolai DROFA spoke about the upcoming season and answered questions from journalists.
More vegetables and oilseeds will be planted
Nikolay DROFA began his story with plans for sowing: “This year we will increase the wedge of sown areas by more than 80 thousand hectares. In a number of areas, the volumes will remain the same. These are cereals. The number of areas under them will remain at 2 million hectares. The wedge will increase for potatoes, vegetables, oilseeds ”.
The minister expressed the hope that the region will become self-sufficient in potatoes in 2021, and in vegetables in the next 2-3 years.
The increase in land under oilseeds is due to the fact that they turned out to be more marginal for the region than, for example, wheat. If in 2020 (compared to 2019) cereals added 20-25% in value, then oilseeds - 60-70%. The demand for these products abroad, in China and Kazakhstan, also spurs the growing area of farmers under them. The minister sees a clear relationship in this issue: in 2020, the Omsk region increased the plantings of oilseed flax, and as a result, exports increased: “If in 2019 the export of the entire agro-industrial complex of the region amounted to $ 191 million, then in 2020 - $ 263 million. Some of this increase was due to oilseeds. ”
Export
The Minister of Agriculture of the Omsk Region emphasized that now the task is not to reduce the volume of exports and to move from the raw material component to deep processing. Nikolay DROFA said that 281 million rubles will be allocated to support oilseed producers working for export: “In addition, 76 million rubles have been allocated from the regional budget for packing export products. Today it is not enough to produce, it is also necessary to pack so that the product is recognizable. We supply products to 45 countries around the world. Our task is to increase the geography and assortment. Two aspects affect this - cost and quality. And here the region supports the agrarians ”.
Technique
In 2020, the government of the Omsk region allocated more than 266 million rubles for technical re-equipment. In general, agrarians' investments in machinery, according to the Minister of Agriculture of the region, increased from 3,7 billion rubles in 2019 to 4,6 billion rubles in 2020. With these funds, the farmers were able to purchase 2 units of equipment.
At the same time, the minister stated that prices for fuels and lubricants from April 2020 to April 2021 increased by 13%.
Crop insurance
The harvest can be affected not only by violation of technology, lack of fertilizers, but also by difficult climatic conditions. In 2020, agricultural producers suffered from drought and dry winds.
- We came to the conclusion that today it is very difficult for farmers without insurance. In 2019, for the first time, a decision was made on compensation: those who insure areas receive an increased coefficient for unrelated support. And in general, the farmer practically does not suffer losses in insurance. In 2019, 422 thousand hectares were insured, and in 2020 - already 548 thousand hectares. And last year we had an insured event due to drought - on dry wind. More than 450 thousand hectares were affected, crops on 60 thousand hectares were completely destroyed. And our farmers, whose areas were insured, received compensation from the federal budget, - said Nikolai DROFA and stressed: - This is in addition to the sums insured. More than 98 million federal rubles were allocated to compensate the costs of those who insured the area.