During the course of the meeting, Vladimir Putin criticized the slow pace of enterprises acquiring agricultural risk insurance (only 10% of agricultural enterprises have been insured). The prime minister also stressed the need to form a domestic market for extracted aquatic bioresources. "Particular attention needs to be paid to the processing and sale of aquatic resources within the country, including the formation of an effective domestic market and an export infrastructure," the prime minister said.

It is necessary to accelerate the construction of new fishing ships at domestic shipyards and to develop sea ports, the prime minister said. The prime minister also said that the situation in the fisheries industry was not bad in general: the output of aquatic bioresources increased by 11.6% to 3.7 million tons in 2009 with prospects of further growth in 2010.

Vladimir Putin recalled that agriculture was discussed at an earlier meeting on June 4, 2010. At this meeting, objectives for agriculture were named: the development of a mechanism for the seasonal adjustment of prices, the balanced development of the agro-industrial complex, and effective risk management in agriculture and import replacement. The prime minister added that improving rural living standards was also important.

Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon.

Today we will consider budget spending for 2011-2013 under the agriculture section.

We turned to this topic not so long ago, on June 4. We discussed the problems involved in the further development of the agro-industrial complex. We mentioned some of the main objectives for the industry: the development of mechanisms for the seasonal adjustment of prices, the balanced development of the agro-industrial complex, and effective risk management in agriculture and import replacement.

I would also like to draw your attention to the development of the fisheries industry. In general, the situation is not bad: in 2009 the production of aquatic bioresources increased by 11.6% to 3.7 million tons, and positive results are predicted for this year as well.

In relation to this, particular attention needs to be paid to the processing and marketing of aquatic bioresources, including the formation of an effective domestic market and an export infrastructure. It is also necessary to accelerate the construction of fishing ships at our domestic shipyards and to develop sea ports.

There is one more issue I would like to discuss with you today, and that is the unusually high temperatures in major agricultural regions. I am referring to the Volgograd, Voronezh, Samara, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, and Orenburg Regions and the Republic of Tatarstan.

Let's discuss possible consequences of the unfavourable weather conditions and the way risk insurance issues are handled in agriculture. I would like to remind you that we addressed these problems last year, and we visited some regions which faced adverse weather conditions. We said then that too little had been done to develop the insurance business in agriculture. According to the information I have, so far no more than 10% of agricultural enterprises have been insured. What is the current situation? And of course I would like to hear how the decisions to support farmers who were hit by drought last year were carried out and the results of this support. Let's get down to work.