Head of Tatarstan Ministry of Agriculture and Food reports on progress of spring field work and repairs of forage harvesters

On 18 April, speaking at a regular meeting held by the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov in the Government House of the republic with participation of the regional Prime Minister Aleksey Pesoshin and the Acting Chairman of the State Council of the republic Marat Akhmetov, the regional Minister of Agriculture and Food Marat Zyabbarov reported about the progress of spring field work, repairs of forage harvesters and provision of vegetable seeds to farmers. He said that all regions of the republic started fertilizing winter and perennial herbs, having completed 190 thousand and 60 thousand hectares accordingly.

The regional Minister also informed that 41 regions of the republic have started harrowing, which helps to retain accumulated moisture in the soil, and 11 regions have begun the spring sowing. He said that 440 thousand tonnes of fertilizers have been procured for the upcoming autumn harvest and the delivery of purchased seeds continues.

Speaking about state support measures, Marat Zyabbarov informed that farms have currently received 2.4 billion rubles in state support and approximately 1.3 billion rubles more will be transferred to nearly all federally co-financed projects by May 1. Under the preferential lending program, 126 short-term loans totaling 14.3 billion rubles and 13 investment loans totaling 3.3 billion rubles have already been issued to farms, he said.

Reporting about forage harvesters preparation work, the regional Minister said that the goal is to complete repairs to the forage harvesting equipment by May 10, with a commission inspection scheduled for May 12. To ensure timely forage harvesting, another 215 forage harvesters, 150 self-propelled mowers, 280 balers, and other forage harvesting equipment must be repaired with 540m rubles or 70 per cent of spare parts have already been procured  

Marat Zyabbarov also told about 30m rubles having been allocated for the procurement of vegetable seeds by district consumer societies and cooperatives of Tatpotrebsoyuz under tripartite agreements for population.