After summarising the twenty years' development of family farming in Russia, Mr Zubkov said that the tradition has been established and that farmers have become important and respected.
Mr Zubkov said Russia currently had 285,000 family and individual farms employing a total of over 1 million people. "Russian farmers have proved they are a constructive force to be reckoned with," he said. "These are considered small businesses, but they have high social responsibilities and growth potential," he added.
At the same time, the official admitted that farmers were facing major goals and problems, one of them sufficient land for their projects. "Farmers should not suffer from lack of land. Those who work on the land should have priority rights to buy or lease it," he said. "Land should belong to effective owners," he added.
The Ministry of Agriculture will draw up a farming development programme soon, to be considered by the Government Commission on Agriculture.
Speaking of the agricultural sector in general, the official emphasised that Russian agribusinesses were stable despite the global economic crisis. They boosted the output meat by 7%, milk by 0.7%, eggs by 4%. Overall, they rolled out a 71.4 billion rouble worth of products.
The government is supporting and protecting agribusinesses in this difficult time, he said adding that the share capital of Rosselkhozbank was increased by 45 billion roubles, and Rosagroleasing, by 25 billion roubles.