Tatarstan farmers to assemble for 10th congress

6 March 2010, 09:48

(Kazan, March 5, Tatar-inform, Irina Ignatieva). On March 12, the 10th congress of farmers and farmsteads will be held in Kazan. The forum is expected to summarise the small businesses’ performance in 2007-2009, told Tatar-inform the Tatarstan Association of Farmers and Private Farmsteads chairman Kamiyar Baitemirov, who will deliver a report at the congress.

The period that will be analysed has not been chosen randomly. According to experts, the years have been decisive in terms of implementing national projects in the agricultural sector. The government set clear priorities in regards to small agricultural businesses. Farmers and household producers were given opportunity to take out low-interest bank loans to develop their farms, to buy elite seeds and breeding stock, which is going to influence the Tatarstan’s gross agricultural production in the future.

For the moment, each invested budget rouble has returned 18 roubles in products. In 2009, smaller farming businesses produced nearly 6-billion-worth agricultural produce. The increase in animal breeding was 14 percent.

The number of farms in 2007-2009 increased from 3.5 thousand to 9.5 thousand. Many new enterprises were supplied with pigs and sheep on a 50x50 basis, meaning the farmers had to pay one half of the cattle’s price. The other half was paid by the state.

The chairmen of the Tatarstan regions’ associations of farmers and farmsteads are expected to assess the current situation at the congress. They will highlight the fact that one of the major deterrents for the farming business development in Tatarstan is an insufficiently established infrastructure. The network of consumer lending, and distribution and logistical, cooperatives is so far under-developed in Tatarstan as well.
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