Marat Zyabbarov speaks about the progress of the preparation of fodder and support for farmers in Tatarstan at a briefing

On June 23, speaking at an online meeting with reporters, Deputy Prime Minister of Tatarstan – Minister of Agriculture and Food of the republic Marat Zyabbarov spoke about the formation of crops, the preparation of fodder and the support for farmers.

“The sowing campaign was held under favorable weather conditions in the republic this year. The organization and quality of work were up to standard. Even sprouts of spring crops are observed everywhere. The area of ​​spring sowing amounted to 1.8 million hectares, and the sown area is over 2.8 million hectares in general. According to the structure of crops, the area of ​​sugar beets decreased by 14 thousand hectares (24 per cent). These areas are sown with grain crops,” the Minister said.

More than 11,000 tractors, 650 high-performance wide-spreading sowing complexes with energy-saturated tractors, more than 6,000 seeders and cultivators were used in the sowing, the Minister went on to say.

Zyabbarov noted that together with the protection of crops, fodder is being harvested. Livestock productivity will depend on the organization of fodder harvesting and observance of mowing terms. Without a solid fodder base, the livestock industry will not be able to realize the tasks to increase the production of livestock products.

It is necessary to harvest rough and succulent fodder from an area of ​​about 500,000 hectares of perennial grass this year. The need for agricultural enterprises of the republic for productive wintering makes 30 centners of fodder unit per 1 livestock unit. From the first mowing, we expect prepare more than 6 centners of fodder unit per 1 livestock unit, the Minister said. 

Speaking about measures to support small farms and increase business activity in the village, Zyabbarov said that there is less heavy manual work and more opportunities to open a business in the regions. For a number of programmes, including the Agrostartap, the Development of family livestock farms based on peasant farms, the Development of agricultural consumer cooperation, the results of the competitions have been summed up, funds are being transferred to grant recipients for the implementation of their projects.

Under the Law of the Republic of Tatarstan “On state support for the development of personal subsidiary plots in the Republic of Tatarstan”, support is provided in 5 areas in the amount of 477.5 million roubles for citizens who have private subsidiary plots.

Moreover, rural residents were provided with free seeds, and in order to prevent a sharp increase in bread prices, the subsidy was increased for the bakeries.

The Rural Mortgage programme has gained great popularity. In Tatarstan, more than 5,000 applications from citizens have been received, for the total amount of loans of about 12.6 billion roubles, 503 loans of which in the amount of 1.09 billion roubles (or 106 million roubles of subsidies) were granted as of June 1. The Russian government plans to allocate additional funds for this programme this year.