Tatarstan Ministry of Agriculture to allocate 700 million, but farmers ask to regulate prices
As Realnoe Vremya found out, the Republican Ministry of Agriculture has developed new measures to support the agro-industrial complex for 2024. Both owners of breeding cattle and those who keep breeding stock will receive the money. But, as farmer Eldar Makhmudov says, agricultural producers could do without subsidies at all if the state intervened in regulating prices for the sale of products. How many millions will be distributed to cattle owners and why farmers need not money, but price control — read the publication's material.
Millions of rubles for subsidies
The Ministry of Agriculture of Tatarstan is preparing new measures of state support for the republican agro-industrial complex in certain areas for 2024. To do this, amendments will be made to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan dated 2021. An updated item is going to appear in it: “The procedure for providing subsidies from the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan to support the maintenance of breeding commercial cattle of specialised meat breeds, with the exception of breeding animals, co-financed from the federal budget.” That is, the owners of the breeding stock should receive subsidies.
The Ministry of Agriculture explained the exclusion of subsidies to owners of breeding cattle as follows: “This procedure has been developed for commodity farms. Subsidies for reimbursement of part of the costs associated with the maintenance of breeding stock of beef cattle are financed by the procedure for providing subsidies from the budget of Tatarstan to agricultural producers to support livestock breeding, co-financed from the federal budget at the rate of 5 thousand rubles per conditional head.”
“The procedure for providing subsidies to agricultural producers to support livestock breeding, co-financed from the federal budget for the purchase of breeding young cattle of dairy and meat directions, provides 73.1 million rubles in 2023. Besides, an additional 655.9 million rubles have been allocated from the republic's budget. For 2024, it is planned to finance 31.8 million rubles from the federal budget and an additional 664.5 million rubles from the budget of Tatarstan, the message says.
As for the owners of the breeding stock, this year 5 million rubles have been allocated for their support, 3 million rubles have been allocated from the federal budget, and another 2 million have been given by the republican budget. The next year, the amount of subsidies will increase to 8.9 million rubles.
“If there is normal government regulation of prices, then we don't even need subsidies”
Realnoe Vremya asked a farmer from the Mendeleevsky district, Eldar Makhmudov, to comment on the topic of subsidies allocation. He noted that farmers can do without allocating money from the state if it starts regulating prices for the sale of their milk and wheat to factories:
“If there is normal government regulation of prices, then we don't even need subsidies. If milk and grain are in price, a liter of diesel fuel should cost like a liter of milk, and a kilogramme of wheat should cost like a kilogram of ammonium nitrate. Today, saltpeter costs 20 rubles per kilogramme, and diesel fuel is constantly jumping in price. If the prices are normal, then there will be no need for subsidies. Why do dairies underestimate the prices for the purchase of milk? Because they contain only 30% of milk, which goes to the shelves, and the rest is unknown quality," Makhmudov believes.
The farmer noted that now farmers are forced to spend a lot of money on the purchase of animal feed, but their products are bought by factories at too low prices. In his opinion, the state should intervene in the situation and start regulating prices.
“The price of bread in stores is almost 50 rubles, and wheat is bought from us at 12 rubles per kilogramme. It turns out that two loaves are 100 rubles, and 12 rubles, is there a difference? The situation with meat is exactly the same," the source concluded.
How Minnikhanov criticised the owners of breeding cattle
This September, the rais of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, criticised some regions of the republic that are unable to cope with the purchase of breeding cattle, as well as lagging behind in the production of dairy products. In his message to the State Council, the head stressed that in the region, support is provided for the development of animal husbandry in the republic in all directions — from the purchase of breeding cattle to the construction of high-tech complexes and feed centers. However, despite that these tools are the same for everyone, they are used in different ways. During the speech, the rais criticised the Drozhzhanovsky and Kamsko-Ustinsky districts, and eight different districts of the republic were also criticised at once. The reason was the refusal to purchase breeding cattle and the lack of dairy production.
“For example, not a single head of breeding cattle was purchased in the Drozhzhanovsky and Kamsko-Ustinsky districts last year. Currently, no major investment projects are being implemented in Drozhzhanovsky, Verkhneuslonsky, Rybno-Slobodsky, Mendeleevsky, Almetyevsk, Laishevsky, and Pestrechinsky districts. As a result, only one Kukmor district produces more milk than these eight combined. This is 140 thousand tonnes of milk a year. Our main task is to prevent a decrease in the number of livestock. The roadmap for its restoration, construction of new livestock complexes has been adopted by Tatarstan agricultural holdings. The Ministry of Agriculture needs to ensure control over the implementation," the head of the republic stressed.