WRITE ONE RUBLE, HOLD THREE IN MIND

Our agriculture is our main military secret. A foreigner will never be able to see the arithmetic of our village. Marat Akhmetov, Minister of Agriculture of Republic of Tatarstan, vice-Premier of Tatarstan Government, tells the Ogonyok correspondent of the formulas that can be used to calculate farmers happiness

«Russia just has to arrive at an agrarian cult»

WRITE ONE RUBLE, HOLD THREE IN MIND

Agriculture in Tatarstan is not an economic sector: it is the state lifestyle. Probably, that is related to the fact that our President is a man from the village.He is a person spiritually disposed towards land and rural work

— Mr. Akhmetov, what is the social system now in your agriculture?

— We have total democracy now in the village. There is everything here one can imagine: cooperatives, collective farms, farmers, simple partnership, joint-stock companies, and many other things.

In the meanwhile, all the changes most often prove to be just a change of signs. So far, we have failed to evoke real participation, for every cooperative member to be vitally interested in the end result of labor and was actively involved in all the problems of economic activities.

Quoting classics, however, I can say, «the process started,» there are farms in the republic, and they multiply, there are 1800 of them this year. While in many Russian regions there is a decline in farms, our dynamics is reverse. We started introducing commercial relations in agriculture somewhat later than others did, but now we are doing that well. Anyway, we try to support equally whatever there is in agriculture, anything that brings good results, no matter whether it is a collective farm, a cooperative or an individual farmer. Credits supporting of the Agroindustrial Complex are equally distributed over districts, whatever the form of ownership. The same occurs with support of leased machines and fertilizers. At the same time, there is a special line (not very large) in the budget for the support of farmers as the most promising direction.

— 1800 farms in Tatarstan — is that much or little?

— Looking just at numbers, that is much. However, farmers may be different. There are farmers that have 20 hectares of land, and there are farmers with 1500 hectares. For economy, it is more desirable and promising that farms should rise and develop gradually, from small areas to large ones. By the way, that is the current tendency.

— The weather is the same as before. The social system changed. What about the scale of agriculture, has it changed a lot as compared with the Soviet times?

— In the 1990s, our President and Government of the Republic did much to support agriculture, the whole Agroindustrial Complex, so that not to lose its production potential. We managed to preserve our old resources better than anywhere else in Russia does. However, because of large price disparity at the market, problems still occur anyway. Machines get older, the private farmer does not have a chance to acquire new machines, and turnover capital is insufficient for buying fertilizers or pesticides. Many farmers get deeper in debt for wages and overdue credits. Because of that, the strength margin of agriculture is not the same as before. However, within the past three years we managed to correct the situation somewhat, we bought over 3 thousand tractors, 1.5 thousand combines, and thousands of other agricultural machines. The republican authorities bought these themselves, and set up a system of republican leasing. Naturally, if the scale of federal support could be the same as republican one, we would feel much easier.

We provide regular support to the farms in reimbursement of their expenses for mineral fertilizers and pesticides. Large amounts of cash are allocated for that, up to Rb 600700 per year. I do not know whether it is good or bad. Of course, that makes the farmers life easier, but, on the other hand, in other regions, where there is no such solid relief, peasants rely on themselves more. Factors of interest and survival work better there, we shall have to arrive at that yet.

— Mr. Akhmetov, what about historical traditions? In Russia, agriculture has always been community-based. Always together. Maybe, our peasant is not genetically predisposed to that kind of work?

— Our peasant has tried everything, any form, and he is predisposed to anything. Only conditions should be appropriate.

Current conditions are as follows: in the post-revolutionary period, production was organized based on large-scale enterprises. Now, we have lots of remaining large machine-technological stations, engineering complexes, animal-breeding farms, drying barn economies. In any case, whatever is said, large owners should be involved here. That would bring high productivity, compliance with technology, and high results. It isnt promising to break Russia into hundreds of thousands of small farms. However, if some people wish to get a small plot and work there, the state must welcome them.

— Have there been people taking that road during the past years? Don't they run away from the village?

— During a year, the number of farmers went up more than by 100. We had 1670, now there are 1800. On the average, there is a drop in Russia. Because Russia started that type of reform earlier. Just imagine, you've been turned adrift, but you know you have a tractor and a plot of land. Since agriculture has not been neglected here, the movement of setting up farms is underway only now, it is ripening naturally.

Besides, agriculture in Tatarstan is not an economic sector: it is the state lifestyle. Probably, that is related to the fact that our President is a man from the village. He is a person spiritually disposed towards land and rural work. He can well understand the rural population. The President often tells us that if we do not help the village, the village will retreat into itself, and it will never go hungry. The state can only lose because of that, without agriculture it can lose its statehood easily.

Russia just has to arrive at an agrarian cult. With its immense natural resources and territory, Russia cannot subsist on a foreign food ration. When, under whom well be able to arrive at that is not clear yet, but Im sure that is what will happen.

Dmitry AKSYONOV