Tatarstan Ministry of Agriculture and Food: As many as 1m 112 thousand hectares have been cropped in Tatarstan which makes 60 per cent of the planned

On 29 April, speaking at a regional meeting held by the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov with participation of regional Prime Minister Aleksey Pesoshin in the Government House of the republic, the regional Minister of Agriculture and Food Marat Zyabbarov reported that as of today1m 112 thousand (from 1m 800 thousand) hectares have been cropped in Tatarstan which makes 60 per cent of the planned. He said that 70 per cent of cereal crops, 81 per cent of sugar beetroot, 55 per cent of rapes and 51 per cent of sunflower have been sown already due to good weather in the last 10 days.

He said that simultaneously with sowing it is necessary to carry out zero tillage as according to weekly checks of the Russian Agricultural Center weeds grow on 50% of winter crops.

The Minister told that currently the farmers have received 5bn rubles of subcidies, including 2bn 54.9m on melioration and plant-growing,  2bn 35.4m – on cattle breeding, 33.2m on small and private farms, 396m on technological modernizations of agribusiness and 139.6m on other spheres. It is planned to pay about 1.3bn rubles of subsidies in May, he said. 

In his report Marat Zyabbarov separately stressed outcomes of agricultural fairs held in Kazan, Naberezhnyye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk and Zelenodolsk region in the current spring informing that 378.8m rubles of agricultural products, such as meat, vegetables, milk, eggs, sugar and flour were sold to residents as fair prices were much more affordable.

Rustam Minnikhanov thanked fairs organizers and said: “One can buy quality products at such fairs and quality means health of people Fairs proved themselves to be very useful and I ask you to continue them. You will have our support in this”.