Mr Zubkov said in his opening remarks:
A series of important decisions were made at yesterday's Government Presidium meeting concerning government policies and support measures with regard to the current drought.
The government has allocated a 35 billion rouble financial support package, calculated based on applications and damage assessments from the regions. These funds will be distributed in two stages.
The package will include direct financial support - subsidies to farms that have lost their crops entirely - as well as budget loans on preferential terms, which the regions can use to offer immediate support to the hardest hit farms, helping restore their financial sustainability.
In the first stage, 20 billion roubles will be issued to the regions, including 15 billion as budget loans and 5 billion as subsidies.
We will conclude the first stage by the end of August, and the second by October or November of this year.
Part of the funds allocated, 7.2 billion roubles, has been already channelled to a number of regions including Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, The Samara, Saratov and Chelyabinsk Regions. This work will continue tomorrow.
During the second stage, after this year's harvest has been assessed, the regions will receive another 15 billion roubles (10 billion roubles in loans and 5 billion in subsidies).
In addition to the 35 billion roubles provided by the federal government, the regions should contribute their own funds to support local agricultural producers.
During the second stage, financial support will be distributed taking into account the efficiency with which funds allocated to each region reached their target companies, and how efficiently the recipient spent the first tranche.
As I have already said, yesterday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced his decision to distribute feed grain from the government intervention fund without auction. Each region affected will be allocated a quota. The government will pass a special act setting out the procedure by which the amount of intervention fund grain to be distributed among the regions is to be determined.
The Agriculture Ministry has been charged with drafting this procedure, taking into account milk and meat production in a region, the regional fodder and grain production and consumption balance and the amount of crops destroyed.
It will be your job to decide, in your regions, which producers are in greater need of financial aid. Please ensure your decision-making is as transparent as possible, for example during your regional government meetings. This is likely to be included in the procedural document.
The feed grain will be offered at the price as of the day of purchase. The grain will be delivered after all the aforementioned issues are settled.
Making animal fodder provisions in other regions is also a highly important issue. Many regions have substantial reserves. The Krasnodar Territory usually stocks a fodder reserve for the next 18-24 months, as I was told yesterday. Other regions share this policy. I had a telephone conversation with Tomsk Region Governor Viktor Kress. They have harvested their fodder, but they still have plenty. Nobody is harvesting the excess. I would like the Tomsk Region representative present here to give us some more detail on this. The fodder needs to be harvested. As per the usual practice for dry years. I don't want to hear any talk this winter of the livestock having to be cut for lack of fodder. The officials in charge of agriculture in their regions will be held personally responsible, please keep this in mind.
My last point will be the temporary ban on the export of grain. This policy is aimed at balancing the interests of domestic grain producers and processors and animal farmers, and at stabilising the market. There is currently a smooth flow of grain from regions where there is a surplus to areas suffering a shortfall. On January 1, we'll consider the balance, verify everything, create a reserve to last until the next harvest and export the remainder. We must start thinking of next year's crop now. It is very important to work effectively sowing winter crops and preparing to sow spring crops. It is essential to analyse the situation thoroughly and ascertain the balance of seeds. In some of the regions it needs to be decided whether to sow winter crops at all, due to the poor condition of the soil.
Therefore, our next meeting will be devoted to the sowing of winter and spring crops and related issues.
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The interdepartmental group, comprising regional governors who have declared states of emergency due to the heat-wave, met by videoconference. The interdepartmental group on policies to deal with the effects of the drought was established upon instruction of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and includes representatives of the Agriculture Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Transport Ministry, the Economic Development Ministry, the Regional Development Ministry, the Emergencies Ministry, the Energy Ministry, the Federal Insurance Supervisory Service, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, the Federal State Statistics Service, the Federal Anti-trust Service (FAS), the company Russian Railways, as well as banking officials and experts. The group meets weekly.