The spring sowing campaign in Tatarstan

The spring sowing campaign is gathering pace in Tatarstan despite the fact that it started a litter later this year due to bad weather conditions. According to Ildus Gabdrakhmanov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan, who was giving a speech at the Cabinet of Ministers briefing, in 2014 the sowing area in Tatarstan is 2.9 million ha (which is equal to the figures of previous years) where 1.7 million ha are for spring sowing.

According to the current data, 12% of areas are sowed. “At the moment 50 thousand ha are being sowed every day”, noted Mr Gabdrakhmanov. As explained by Deputy Minister, the rate of work differs in various regions of the republic. The highest rates are in: Dorzhanovo dirstict – 43% of winter crops have been sowed, Buinsk region – 40%, Apastovo region – 37%, Kaibitsk and Tetyushi regions – about 25 %. There is also a high rate in Zainsk, Aznakaevo, Sarmanovo and Chistopol regions. The rate is about 20% there.

Ildus Gabdrakhmanov also noted that over 75% of perennial grasses and over 80% of winter crops have been top-dressed. Last year 582 thousand ha were sowed with winter crops. “Specialists estimate that over 90% of areas sowed with winter crops are in a good condition, 9% is in a satisfactory condition, less than 1% of areas will be sowed once again”, stated Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The quality of winter crops is good. It is necessary to provide the plants with proper handling including zero tillage, protection against illnesses, blasts and depredators. At present this work is being carried out.

Ildus Gabdgakhmanov noted that the current weather is perfect for winter crops. “If we provide the plants with proper handling we can count on a good yield of winter crops”, assured Mr Gabdrakhmanov.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan reports that today there are 14 tractors, 536 wide-cut sowing machines, 6.8 thousand seeding machines and 6 thousand rippers working on the fields. The technological capacity of all sowing machines is 120 thousand ha per 24 hours which enables to carry out field works in short time.

In the words of Deputy Minister there are no problems with seeds in the republic. Speaking about fuel and lubricants, there are 80,000 tons of fuel for the spring sowing campaign, 55,000 tons have already come to the bulk plant.

Concerning financial support, as explained by Ildus Gabdrakhmanov, the funding of 11 billion rubles is necessary for the sowing campaign.

The budget support is estimated at 3.3 billion rubles. 628 million rubles are allocated from the state budget, almost 700 million rubles – from the republican budget. Subsidized loans are estimated at almost 800 million rubles, subsidized milk is about 400 million rubles, subsidized technical re-equipment – 250 million rubles.

This year the best conditions are for those working in dairy cattle husbandry and big breeding owing to the fact that since the beginning of the year purchase prices for milk have been 30% higher than in the previous year while the cost of pork is 105-115 rubles (last year it was 60 rubles).