The Governor and the agricultural producers identified the main directions of the agricultural industry development

The representatives of the agro-industrial complex of all the districts of Smolensk region - farmers, suppliers of agricultural machinery and equipment, as well as the management of the Smolensk Agricultural Academy, "Rosselkhozbank", other relevant organizations and institutions participated in the meeting on the agro-industrial complex development, which was chaired by Governor Alexey Ostrovskiy.

Before moving to the main issue on the agenda of the meeting, the Governor touched upon the issue of grain production. This year, not less than 235 thousand tons of grain will be produced, which is 35 thousand tons more than last year. For the first time in Smolensk region the average yield of grain exceeds 22 tons per hectare. In Smolensk region 290 agricultural organizations are engaged in grain production, of which 35 companies received grain yield exceeding 25 tons per hectare, and at 17 companies the yield ranged from 30 to 40 quintals per hectare. There are companies where the rate of productivity is greater than 50 tons per hectare.

At the same time the grain cultures amount to only 26% of the crop structure. Currently there is a task to bring the grain crops to optimum 40% by 2020. Particular attention will be paid to the expansion of winter grain crops, the yields of which is 20% more than those of spring plants. The winter crop area for the harvest of 2015 has been increased by 3%.

In 2015, under the State Regional Agricultural Development Program 132 million rubles will be allocated to the development of grain production.
 

Dairy cattle breeding development prospects

Among the main priorities in the agro-industrial area Alexey Ostrovskiy pointed out the development of the dairy cattle breeding. According to the Head of the region, 190 agricultural producers, including individual farmers, are currently engaged in milk production in the region. Since 2002, there has been steady increase in milk yield per cow.

This year, the total of 172 million rubles, which is 22% in the overall structure of the state support of the agriculture, will be allocated to optimize the financing of the regional programs for the dairy industry development. At the same time the government support measures are not sufficient and cannot lead to a sharp increase in production. In gross milk production Smolensk region is ranked 9th (298 thousand tons) of the 17 regions of the Central Federal District, as the Governor noted, which satisfies neither the Administration of the region, nor agricultural producers. The Head of the region emphasized that in order to stabilize the industry it is necessary to develop a strategy of dairy cattle breeding development in Smolensk region, and to correctly use the existing resources and opportunities provided by the state.

"For example, the provision of the fifteen-year preferential loans for the dairy cattle breeding development to the farms will help to create 4-5 large enterprises with the number of cows not less than 1,000 heads each on the emerging investment platforms of the region in the years 2015-2018. It is especially important for the region to carry out the investment projects at the "Golden Niva" with 4,800 dairy cows and at the agricultural company "Nasha Zhitnitsa" with 1,200 cows", - said Alexey Ostrovskiy.

In 2013, through the allocation of 54 million rubles from the regional budget another thousand of cattle stalls was created in the industry.

In 2015, under the State Regional Agricultural Development Program 224 million rubles will be allocated to the dairy cattle breeding development. The allocated funds will allow to stabilize milk production in 2015-2016 and ensure its annual volume increase starting from 2017.
 

Potatoes and vegetables production development prospects

The second among the stated priorities in the import replacement of products, according to Alexey Ostrovskiy, is the development of potatoes and vegetables production.

According to the forecasts, in 2014 in Smolensk region 201,000 tons of potatoes and 64 thousand tons of vegetables will be produced. The figures are lower than last year. However, this decrease is caused by the reduced production in the households.

One of the most important factors in successful development of the potatoes and vegetables production can be, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, co-operation of the producers, as well as the creation of a network of logistics centers (wholesale-distribution centers). This will greatly improve the product quality and will minimize the costs the farms incur through production, processing and marketing. The logistics center will be able to provide the full range of services for the sale of products, including the provision of points-of-sale, commercial equipment, storage facilities, transportation services. The agricultural industry representatives voiced the idea of building modules for processing and storing vegetables and potatoes, as well as for packaging finished products. Currently in Smolensk region there is only one large modern vegetable storage; the consumer packaging, which will be used in the packaging workshops, first of all, is necessary for the standardization of products and, ultimately, for the increase in production volumes.
 

Rapeseeds production

Next, the participants of the regional agro-industrial forum discussed the development of rape oilseeds production.

Addressing the farmers, the Head of the region emphasized, that if the cultivation technology is observed the margin between production and sale of the rape can be 35-40%. No other crop produced in the region can provide such a return.

Alexey Ostrovskiy drew the attention of the meeting participants to the need to create a powerful system of cooperation. It is this system that will allow to improve the competitiveness of products and to enter the new product markets. The available at LLC "Grainlux" of the Roslavl district rapeseed processing capacity, amounting to 50 thousand tons of seeds per year, guarantees the sales and an increase in production of these products. Thus, there is a good opportunity of producing high-protein feed for the livestock and combined feed for the development of fish-farming in the region. However, this year only 7 farms in the region have supply agreements with this company for the amount of 3 thousand rapeseed per year.

Launching the LLC "Grainlux" allows to solve the problems of the past, when agricultural enterprises-producers of rapeseed were forced to deal with drying, sorting and selling on their own, which led to additional financial costs. Currently, these operations are carried out at the production site of the LLC "Grainlux".

The Governor stressed that regional authorities are very interested in increasing the production of rape, because there are real opportunities of entering the international markets, particularly those which are keen on bioenergy.

The pilot projects of agro-industrial complex development in Smolensk region

In Smolensk region there are good preconditions for the development of fish-farming. The region has more than 220 water bodies with the total area of about 16 hectares, and the length of the river system is 20 thousand kilometers. Stocking of water bodies of natural and artificial origin with valuable fish species and river (so-called people's) fish species, allowing official commercial fishing could increase the regional production of marketable fish up to 700 tons per year with the prospect of production up to 3 million tons of fish products per year by 2020. The relative Department is actively working with the fishing farms, doing task set by Alexey Ostrovskiy, and as Tatiana Rybchenko explained, there is real hope that already in 2015 fish production will have grown by 15% with an annual increase rate of 20%.

Another promising project is the further development of the greenhouse vegetables production. There has been a lot of work done to form the investment platforms for creating large modern greenhouses. For example, CJSC "Tsarskoye Selo" in the Yartsevo district plans to implement an investment project to build a greenhouse complex on the territory of 40 hectares. It is expected that the first products will be in stores in early 2016.