Main problems in the village under discussion

Within the framework of the second part of Social Organisations Forum “Together!” on Tuesday, April 29, a round table discussion “Civil society – creating the future” was held. Participants discussed various problems of AIC and quality of life in the village.

Nikolai Titov, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Ilsul Safiullin, Vice-Chairman of the State Council Committee of Ecology, Natural Resource Management and Agriculture of the Republic of Tatarstan, took part in the round table discussion. Villagers from Atnya, Saby, Baltasi as well as from other regions discussed with the officials the most important issues.

Nikolai Titov, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan, noted at the beginning of his speech that the spring sowing campaign is in full swing. The following regions of the republic have started the sowing campaign: Caby, Arsk, Agryz and Bugulma regions.

Agronomists from Baltasi region are worried by reduced subsidies as well as the reduced prices for milk. Representatives of Saby region consider movement of the youth from villages to cities to be one of the main problems. Rustam Zagidullin, Head of the rural settlement, notes that one of the main reasons for that is low salaries in the villages. In the cities salaries are much higher and there is a choice of different jobs. “In our village there are no problems with flats. There are also medical and obstetric centers, kindergartens, modern schools, but young people move away anyway. I suppose they don’t want to work in agricultural sphere, they don’t wish to be tractor operators or milkmaids. If processing factories and plants were built, young people would stay in the villages”, says Mr. Zagudullin.

Nikolai Titov agrees that the food sector is not developed enough. In his opinion it is necessary to build more processing factories, namely meat-packing plants. First Deputy Minister notes that it is necessary to pay special attention to the manufacturing of finished products which could be distributed and sold through retail chains.

Vice-Chairman of the State Council Committee of Ecology, Natural Resource Management and Agriculture of the Republic of Tatarstan, Ilsur Safiullin, considers the low purchasing power to be one of the main problems in the village. “We can manufacture products but not everything can be sold at an attractive price. To earn more we should produce more and sell the products not only in republics but also in other regions”, says Mr. Safiullin.

It should be noted that the main aim of the events, organized within the framework of Social Organisations Forum “Together!, is to figure out the issues which are important for the citizens and to work out the possible ways to solve the problems with the participation of the party “United Russia”, authorities and civil society institutions. The information center of “United Russia” states that following the results of the event the main priorities and aims of “United Russia” party will be outlined as part of the next election campaign.