Breeders and agricultural scientists are confident that Russia will cope with the shortage of seeds on its own. And the current situation with world currencies and sanctions can only play into the hands of the domestic agro-industrial complex.
This was noted by the participants in the meeting of the Expert Council under the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian Food Policy and Environmental Management.
Currently, in Russia, the import of seeds for various crops ranges from 20% to 99%. And the reason for this is the situation in the 1990s, when the country practically lost breeding institutes.
According to the plans of the Ministry of Agriculture, in the next two years, interventions in grain and sugar alone will amount to more than 17 billion rubles. But it is obvious that these will be final purchases.
The task of the industry is to completely replace the seed bank in the next two years. The senators are now solving this issue together with agricultural experts and breeders.
“One of the main directions to reduce these risks should be a program for breeding seed production. Under it, we are implementing six subprograms, but only two of them are active – for potatoes and sugar beets. The rest will begin to be performed in 2022, this year they are starting to be performed,” said Belan Khamchiev, deputy head of the Federation Council Committee.
The senators noted that the role of agrarian institutions is beginning to grow in Russia. Thanks to their work, it was possible to revive the seeds of some vegetable crops and successfully grow them on the basis of domestic agro-industrial complex enterprises. Therefore, there is no talk of the decline of the industry and a possible shortage of products now.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, this year’s grain harvest will exceed 120 million tons, sugar beets – 40 million tons and potatoes – about 7 million tons.
