By the start of this week, farmers in the Sosnovsky district had completed potato planting on 1,451 hectares out of a planned 1,565, with only a few fields remaining. Ideal weather conditions have allowed for faster progress compared to the 2025 planting season, though rain is now urgently needed for the developing crop. Although potato fields account for only 5% of the district’s total sown area, they produce nearly half of the entire South Ural potato market. In 2025, local farmers achieved a record-breaking yield of 365 centners (36.5 metric tons) per hectare, with a nearly 48% increase over 2024. However, recent seasons have brought challenges: extreme soil overmobilization left many farmers without sufficient seed grain or potatoes for the next planting, forcing them to make costly investments in elite seeds. Honored Farmer of the Russian Federation Khalit Kamalov, for example, invested 40 tons of mid-early potato seeds and 10 tons of Odintsovskaya wheat, which not only improved yields but also helped establish a valuable proprietary seed stock.
Starting in 2026, Russian law prohibits the use of non-varietal seeds in production. Additionally, data on purchased seeds must be entered into the Federal State Information System for Seed Production (FSIS “Seed Production”), which tracks seed production, storage, transport, and sales, with automatic integration across four regulatory systems. This has added a significant new workload for farmers — this time on computers. At an April pre-sowing council, farmers were told, “Information systems are now the law. The faster you adapt, the easier it will be.” Despite the heavy seasonal workload and unforeseen challenges, many farmers are learning the new digital systems themselves or enlisting help from their adult children. In Khalit Kamalov’s farm, his son Vladislav Kamalov is responsible for all integrated system data entry. The new era demands that the next generation of Sosnovsky farmers master technical innovations, accounting, premium seed varieties, and market dynamics.
