Marat Zyabbarov summed up the preliminary results of the year
Today Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Zyabbarov summed up the preliminary results of the agricultural season, noting that “there is still a whole quarter” and during this time the indicators may change.
Zyabbarov recalled that farmers had completed the harvest of grain in the fields of the republic. According to preliminary data, 5 million 335 thousand tons of grain were harvested in the initial weight. “If you paid attention, the President of Tatarstan during my reports always specifies: this is after refinement, sorting or in bunker weight. Here is the figure in bunker weight. We expect to receive another 100,000 tons of corn, more than 5.4 million tons. And taking into account the refinement, we will get about 5.1 million tons of grain in barns, in warehouses,” the Minister of Agriculture and Food explained.
He emphasized that Arsky, Tetyushsky, Buinsky, Muslyumovsky and Menzelinsky districts made a big contribution to this year's harvest, having collected over 200 thousand tons of grain. The weather, according to Zyabbarov, was quite favorable, but still, the farmers did not have enough rain and coolness during the period "formation of an ear, especially a spring wedge."
“We planned to collect more. The grain turned out to be a little frail and smallish. But, in our opinion, the harvest for the republic is still a good one,” he said.
The high yield was also influenced by the use of high-quality original seeds. This year, the figure was 38%, and it is planned to increase it for next year's harvest.
“Mineral fertilizers have a big impact. This year, thanks to loans, work with companies, we acquired 74.4 kilograms of the active substance per hectare. This is a pretty good result, but next year we strive to increase the accumulation of fertilizers,” the minister said.
Marat Zyabbarov noted that the farms that carry out agrotechnological activities receive a high yield. “But someone does not pay attention to this, someone does not have enough money, someone has specialists, and someone has control. Accordingly, we do not achieve the indicator that we want,” he complained.
The head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food also drew attention to the need to analyze the soil every five years. And many farms of the republic carry out such work, he added. “Starting next year, we will probably even stop supporting farms in crop production that do not have a passport for soil analysis. It is necessary to support those who approach the earth as competently as possible. Because all this affects the harvest,” he stressed.
This year, the republic plans to harvest 1 million 650 thousand tons of sugar beets, 600 thousand tons of oilseeds, more than 800 thousand tons of potatoes and 260 thousand tons of vegetables. “Now we are harvesting corn for grain and silage. 70,000 tons of potatoes and 16,000 tons of vegetables were harvested,” the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan shared.
Winter crops are planned to be sown on 513,000 hectares, same as last year. To date, 91% of the area, or 490 thousand hectares, has already been sown. “But there are desperate farms that do not stop sowing, they are still doing it. They believe that there are still reserves and time, regarding the weather conditions,” Zyabbarov said.
As for the production of sugar, the Buinsky and Zainsky plants process more than 11 thousand tons of root crops per day. They have already received about 440,000 tons of beets. “Today, more than 44,000 tons of sugar beets have been processed, the sugar yield was 15.3%, which is almost the same as last year. The past rains have affected the growth of sugar,” the minister said.
In total, according to him, Tatarstan plans to produce about 250,000 tons of sugar with a demand of 100,000 tons.
The head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food said that the equipment is currently being prepared for next year. According to preliminary calculations, it is necessary to purchase and restore spare parts for 5.2 million rubles.
“Last year it cost almost 4.8 billion rubles. But the prices increase. We urge farms to conduct a troubleshooting campaign and start placing orders with companies, dealerships that sell spare parts. We hope that we will carry out the work ahead of schedule this year,” Zyabbarov said.
At the same time, according to him, this season the work was also carried out ahead of schedule and all the necessary spare parts and equipment were received before the start of the special operation, after which sanctions were imposed on Russia. “During the year, the spare parts were brought through friendly states, there were no failures in supply. The deadlines were a bit delayed, but, in any case, everything was delivered on time,” the minister said.
This year, the farms purchased more than 2.4 thousand units of agricultural machinery for more than 7.6 billion rubles. “And now the delivery is on schedule,” the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food emphasized.
Speaking about state support for the industry, Zyabbarov noted that 13.6 billion rubles were provided for the implementation of 27 measures. About 9.1 billion rubles will be allocated from the republican budget, and the rest - from the federal.
“Until the end of the year, funds from the federal budget should still be received to subsidize the sold grain - 1.3 billion rubles. There are programs for reimbursement of construction costs. The selection takes place at the federal level, we have also announced our projects. We hope to get a decent amount there. More than 25% of construction funds are reimbursed. We expect the same support from the republican budget next year,” the minister said.
Marat Zyabbarov said that milk production has increased in Tatarstan - for eight months, the growth amounted to 31.6 thousand tons, or 2.4%. In total, more than 1.3 million tons of milk were produced during this period.
“By the end of the year, in terms of milk yield per cow, we are going with a 5% increase,” said the Minister of Agriculture and Food.
However, according to him, it will not be possible to produce 2 million tons of milk this year in the republic, but the plan of 1 million 980 thousand tons will be fulfilled.
“This year we get 6.6 thousand liters of milk from one cow. Next year we plan to receive 7 thousand liters. The task is to increase the milk yield from one cow by 5-6% annually,” the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food emphasized.
Marat Zyabbarov also explained that over the past three years, the farms have carried out serious work on updating the herd, culling cows, which caused a decrease in the number of livestock. At the same time, a large number of cattle are imported into the republic. Thus, by the end of the year, it is planned to bring in about 16,000 heads of new livestock, including 6,000 animals from abroad. “There are enterprises where the livestock was completely eliminated by 100% and a new one was brought in,” the minister said.
Tatarstan will develop a new program for the development of horse breeding. The document is being formed for 2023-2025 with continuation until 2030, said Marat Zyabbarov. For this purpose, the previous document, calculated for ten years, was analyzed. He noted that a meeting was held with horse breeders of the republic, from whom many questions and wishes were received on the development of this direction.
“We have state stables, they need to be brought into line. The essence of the state stable 20 years ago was different - horses should work on farms, deliver food. Today everything has changed, we are focusing on classes in sports schools, on breeding horses, on their maintenance. For example, someone wants to have a racing horse, but there is no place in the area to keep it. We are also preparing such proposals,” the minister stressed.
Zyabbarov specified that the new document has not yet been agreed and approved. Work on its creation is carried out on behalf of the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, who supports horse breeding, he added.
“At the moment, there are 31 thousand heads of horses in the republic. This includes horses that work on farms, as well as horses of the Tatar breed. After talking with horse breeders, we will form a single program so that it works for everyone,” he said.
In September, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food headed the Federation of Horse Breeding and Equestrian Sports of Tatarstan.
In connection with the partial mobilization announced on September 21 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, journalists did not ignore this topic. As Marat Zyabbarov said, in Tatarstan, 38% of workers in the agro-industrial complex can get a reservation from mobilization.
“In Tatarstan, 600 agroindustrial enterprises have the right to book employees. The staff of these enterprises is 49 thousand people. Of the 12,000 workers on the reserve, about 10,000 people are subject to reservation,” the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food noted.
According to him, they are trying to find new specialists to replace the mobilized agricultural producers, so the work is underway to "urgently search for people." At the same time, the minister noted that the situation is not critical.
“Many requests come from enterprises, agricultural producers, but there is an indicator according to which we are working. Today, those who leave are trying to find a replacement. This is how enterprises get out of the situation,” he stressed.