Agricultural enterprises of the Novosibirsk region plan to increase the production of potatoes, carrots and cabbage, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture reports.
The development of open field vegetable growing is currently one of the priority tasks for the agro-industrial complex of the Novosibirsk region. Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Agriculture Yevgeny Leshchenko discussed at a meeting with heads of agricultural enterprises the readiness of farms for sowing and the industry’s ability to increase vegetable production.
“For the Novosibirsk region, open-field vegetable growing is an extremely important area, because potatoes and vegetables of the “borscht set”: carrots, beets, cabbage are almost the only types of agricultural products for which our region has not yet reached self-sufficiency, – said Evgeny Leshchenko. “More than half of the demand has to be imported from other regions of the country and neighboring countries.”
According to the food balances in the Novosibirsk region, the level of self-sufficiency in greenhouse and open ground vegetables is slightly more than 51%. In 2021, 10 agricultural enterprises and 7 individual entrepreneurs were engaged in the cultivation of vegetables in open ground, the sown area of vegetables in these farms increased by 3% in the sown area in 2021 and amounted to 732 hectares. At the same time, in farms of all forms of ownership, including personal subsidiary farms of citizens engaged in the production of agricultural products, the sown area of vegetables in the region as a whole amounted to 3719 hectares, which is 320 hectares less than a year earlier.
The production of vegetables and potatoes in private gardens and summer cottages of citizens is declining every year, even in rural areas, the participants of the meeting admitted. The agricultural enterprises of the region are increasing their sown areas, achieving higher yields, but it takes time to fully replenish the sagging volumes of private vegetable growing.
“The Ministry of Agriculture of the region, for its part, is ready to work out mechanisms for special support for this industry,” emphasized Yevgeny Leshchenko. “Vegetable growers, like other agricultural producers, enjoy federal and regional state support, but additional measures must be taken to develop this sector of crop production.”
Among other things, the creation of successful vegetable farms requires investments in the construction of vegetable stores, the installation of irrigation systems. It is also important to address the issue of seed supply – Russian scientists will have to gradually replace the achievements of world breeding with their own effective varieties.
In the meantime, the seed resource available in the farms of the region, according to the participants of the meeting, will last for two or three years. Vegetable growers of the region are fully prepared for the upcoming sowing season.
