At a meeting of Russia's state commission on the agro-industrial complex, the participants discussed fundamental strategies for drafting the new state programme to expand the sector and regulate agricultural produce, feedstock and food markets.
“As we prepare the draft, we should prioritise the present programme's main guidelines and retain the primary principles, mechanisms and forms of state support that have proved effective,” First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said, while opening the meeting.
The 2008-2012 programme places a priority on sustainable development for agricultural areas, plant-growing and livestock-breeding, and achieving financial stability, technical and production modernisation, and regulating agricultural produce, feedstock and food markets.
Subsidised interest rates on loans taken out by agricultural producers serve as a key instrument for facilitating the industry's uninterrupted investment process.
“The new guidelines, drafted upon the instructions of both the President and the government, should play a significant role in the new programme,” first deputy prime minister said. “This implies incentives for investments and innovation development in the sector, expanding agricultural and food market infrastructure, supporting small rural businesses, and providing incentives for the cost-effective use of farmlands. We should not forget about this, as greenhouse vegetable-growing and gardening are in high demand by businesses and the food market.”
Zubkov also noted that the commission should heed plans to minimise outlays and facilitate the sector's “adequate development based on Food Security Doctrine targets, while calculating funding volumes.” He added that introducing innovation resource- and energy-efficient technologies is a priority for achieving this goal.
“Agro-businesses already boast very cost-effective farming methods and waste-free, deep-processing technologies, which make use of new prefabricated structures and environmentally-friendly packaging materials,” he said. “We need to stipulate incentives for promoting and spreading such experiences under the new programme on the basis of public-private partnership potential.”
The present programme is set to expire in 2012. As a result, the participants said the new extended programme should be launched in 2013 and run until 2020. The Agriculture Ministry was instructed to draft the relevant amendments to the federal law “On Agricultural Development.”
Considering the recent discussion and relevant proposals, Zubkov instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to continue drafting the programme with the Russian Agricultural Academy and branch unions and associations. He also asked the ministry to submit the agreed-upon draft programme to the government for review by Dec. 1, 2011. He added that the programme’s structure should match the requirements of Government Resolution No. 588, dated Aug. 2, 2010, and Instruction of the RF Govrnment No. 1950-R, dated Nov. 11, 2010.
The commission members also supported the main provisions of the bill “On Amending the Federal Law ‘On Pedigree Livestock Breeding.’” Notably, the amendments call for including in the list organisations authorised to breed pedigree livestock, as well as genetic-selection centres and self-employed businessmen. The bill aims to increase the national pedigree livestock population. The ministry was asked to finalise and submit the bill to the Presidential Council for codification and improvement of legislature for an expert check.
As the meeting winded down, the participants discussed the execution of an action plan to eradicate the African swine flu. The commission members stressed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Federal Service
for Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Control (Roselkhoznadzor) should be more active in preventing the African swine plague in the Russian regions.
On this note, the first deputy prime minister instructed Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik, who heads the interdepartmental commission on preventing and eradicating the African swine flu, to hold a commission meeting by the week's end via video conference. Zubkov asked Skrynnik to assess regional veterinary services' activities and to submit to the government for review a report on the execution of the action plan to prevent and eradicate the African swine flu in March.