Tatarstan Discusses Measures to Support Farmers and Cooperatives
At the end of last week, a meeting with farmers of the republic was held at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan. The event was chaired by Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Ksenia Shevelkina. It was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan - Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Zyabbarov, Deputy Director of the Department of Rural Development of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Renata Bibarsova and Chairman of the Council of the Association "People's Farmer" Oleg Sirota.
In the Republic of Tatarstan, special attention is paid to small forms of farming in rural areas, these are 2.6 thousand farms and 401 thousand personal subsidiary farms, which last year produced 42% of the gross agricultural output of the republic - 142 billion rubles.
To improve the efficiency of their work, farmers and private farms unite into cooperatives that work on organizing the procurement of products from villagers, their processing, and marketing. A total of 395 agricultural consumer cooperatives have been registered, of which 188 are operating, 69 of which have their own processing.
In order to further develop agricultural cooperation, the Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov made a decision to annually allocate 200 million rubles from the republic's budget for grant support of existing cooperatives for 5 years, starting in 2026.
According to Marat Zyabbarov, this is another very good opportunity for municipal districts to further develop agricultural consumer cooperation.
The Minister emphasized that promising areas of activity in rural areas are rural tourism and leisure organization. "They are in demand in the republic and over 60 entrepreneurs are engaged in them. Of these, 12 received grants from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture for 99 million rubles, including 5 projects this year for 42 million rubles,” he said.
The meeting participants were interested in the requirements for confirming the compliance of imported machinery and equipment within the framework of the implementation of state support programs, including the provision of grants to agricultural producers, measures of state support for the development and preservation of bakeries in rural areas, the disposal of biological waste and the elimination of unused cattle burial grounds.
Special attention was also paid to issues of supporting the activities of agricultural consumer cooperatives that have entered international markets, adapting the existing experience of state support for private subsidiary farms to the field of harvesting and processing wild plants, activities in the digital systems "Honest Sign" and FGIS "Mercury", resuming the practice of including kumys in therapeutic and health-improving nutrition, support measures for gasification and the introduction of lean manufacturing elements at enterprises.
Representatives of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture noted the importance of developing rural areas and preserving the traditional way of life. The need to support small and medium-sized businesses in rural areas, as well as to create conditions for attracting young people to agriculture, was emphasized.
At the end of the meeting, Ksenia Shevelkina expressed gratitude to the leadership of the Republic of Tatarstan for their active work on developing agriculture and expressed confidence in further fruitful cooperation. Marat Zyabbarov, in turn, emphasized the region's readiness to implement new projects and initiatives aimed at increasing the efficiency of agriculture and improving the lives of rural residents.
Following the meeting, instructions were given to responsible persons to work out the issues raised and prepare proposals to improve measures of state support for agriculture.