Putin “significantly” held a meeting with farmers on the day of the extension of the grain deal

The President was promised a significant harvest

Vladimir Putin at a meeting on the course of spring field work did not comment on the extension of the grain deal. At the same time, the president stressed that the sanctions did not prevent Russia from harvesting a record harvest and increasing the export of its agricultural products: compared to 2021, revenues increased by $4.5 billion, to $41.6 billion. also seagulls in the garbage, which are the main carriers of bird flu.

On the day the grain deal was extended for another 60 days, Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the heads of agricultural regions and industry leaders. However, the main topic was not discussed at it. Dmitry Peskov told reporters about the motives that prompted the Russian authorities to agree to the extension of the agreement. According to the Kremlin speaker, “relative results” were achieved during the negotiations: in particular, “various options are being worked out that will be equivalent to unblocking SWIFT for Rosselkhozbank. As for ammonia and fertilizers, “talks continue”, there are “certain hopes”. “We will try to solve the problems within 60 days, for which the deal has been extended,” the presidential press secretary summed up, pointing out that the further fate of the agreement is in the hands of those “with whom the UN should coordinate the Russian part.”

However, the appearance in the President’s schedule of a meeting on agricultural topics on May 18, apparently, was not a mere coincidence. The leitmotif of all speeches, from Putin to the governors, is that the industry is developing super-successfully and the failure to fulfill the “Russian part” of the deal essentially does not affect anything. Last year, they harvested a record harvest of 158 million tons and, despite the sanctions, increased their export earnings. “There has never been such a harvest in recent history!” – commenting on the announced indicators, said the GDP. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev clarified: not only for the latest, but for the times of the RSFSR – “this is the first time.” However, farmers can repeat. This year, as Patrushev said, the harvest will also be, if not a record, then at least worthy. Everything that is needed for this, the industry has. The main thing is that the weather does not disappoint.

In confirmation of the minister’s words, the governors of agricultural regions bombarded Vladimir Putin with statistics on how much they sow and in what volumes. In the Rostov region, the sown area has increased by 10% and is already preparing for the harvest – harvest begins in the second half of June. “Before that, we will hold the Day of the Don Field – we will gather all the villagers, listen to the scientists,” said the head of the region. His colleague from the Krasnodar Territory pressed on rice – more than 60% of the plan had already been sown, and with seeds exclusively of the Kuban selection. The Amur region focuses on soybeans and, as the president confirmed, it is doing the right thing. “Our friends in China are very friendly towards our manufacturers and are ready to accept a very large amount of this product. We need to develop,” said VVP.

The key problem of the industry is the rise in the price of agricultural machinery. Western producers left, and Russian ones, in the absence of competition, raised prices. For some positions, they increased by 1.5 times, so the farmers did not master them. Patrushev assured Putin that the issue was being resolved. Fraternal Belarus has increased the production of tractors and other agricultural machines. Their cost is “acceptable”, and in terms of quality characteristics, Belarusian equipment “quite a full substitute for world leaders,” the minister said.

The head of the Rosselkhoznadzor, Sergei Dankvert, in turn, drew attention to bird flu. “Our situation is not easy, the number of outbreaks is greater than last year,” he said. So far, according to the official, the distributors are wild birds – primarily gulls that live in landfills. However, the disease tends to spread quickly to poultry farms. For example, last year the European Union was forced to exterminate 60 million birds due to bird flu, and now for the first time it is vaccinating all its paws, i.e. geese and ducks. “We ended up in the same way as foreigners,” the official complained, urging the leaders of the regions to first deal with seagulls in landfills. Vaccines for pigs suffering from African swine fever have not yet been invented. “We have to live with her,” said Dankvert, not too optimistically. But there is reason for optimism here too: in Russia, product traceability is very good – everything that is infected is quickly located and destroyed. “These are key words,” Putin said.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29032 dated May 19, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Russian farmers can repeat