NATALIA SHAGAIDA: “IT IS BETTER TO PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY OF PRODUCTION THAN BRING NEW ACREAGES TO AGRICULTURAL USE”

Bio-Ton, Russia’s largest sunflower producer is planning to bring under cultivation nearly 10,000 ha of disused land this year. Throughout the entire period of its operation, the agricultural holding returned 126,000 ha of land to agricultural use which is equal to nearly 30% of its land bank, the Agroinvestor reports. In view of Natalia Shagaida, Head of the Agrarian Policy Department, Gaidar Institute, it makes sense to bring disused land to agricultural use only in case of economic advantage or if social issues can be solved through it.

“Each case should be considered individually in terms of social and economic expedience. Each individual agricultural producer or regional and municipal authorities will deal with it. It is important to ensure for all agricultural producers an equal access to state support funds under this program,” the expert notes.

“Generally, it is impossible to speak about the efficiency of bringing all planned acreages to agricultural use because plenty of factors need to be taken into account. At present, the overall area of planting acreages is smaller than it used to be in the USSR, but as regards crops in demand it is the same or even larger. The main decline took place in forage crops which are currently used less. Apart from that, in the Soviet period they used to plough up all the land without taking into account whether proceeds from sale of products covered the costs. It is not necessarily to seek to achieve such volumes even beyond the framework of the program. Further, Russia’s potential for crop yield growth provided that agricultural

land in use is maintained in good condition has not been exhausted yet and it would be better to promote the efficiency of production, rather than bring new acreages in agricultural use,” Natalia Shagaida believes.