Nikolai Sherstnev detailed the state and development vector of the Vitebsk region's agricultural sector at a press conference on the eve of the "Dazhynki" festival.
Everything is known in comparison
To the first question about how the current year was for grain growers, Nikolai Nikolaevich answered in one word: "Difficult." And he elaborated on his thought, because when assessing the current harvest, it is necessary to compare the conditions under which it was formed. Analysis shows that one year out of 8-10 years is usually more or less favorable in the Vitebsk region. This year, there was both drought and floods, and hail. The work done in the agricultural sector recently allowed us to expect at least 1.3 million tons of grain. But we harvested 756 thousand tons. This is disappointing, but the result is determined not only by the gross yield. Per point-hectare of land, the region has 90.3 kilograms of grain. Only Brest region is ahead of us - by 1.4 kilograms. All others are lower. This speaks to the efficiency of our workers, and that northern Vitebsk region turned out to be more prepared to work in extreme conditions. There are other record figures. Two crews this year exceeded the 4,000-ton grain harvest. In the future, if each combine provides such productivity, we will need only 250 high-performance machines to obtain a million tons, but now we have more than one and a half thousand different ones. These are people, salaries, maintenance, and other expenses. Therefore, our ideology for tomorrow is to increase productivity, and with a yield of 40 centners per hectare, to ensure a harvest of 7-8 thousand tons of grain per combine. In many farms, there will not be enough land for this? Integration structures will allow us to expand fully and effectively use expensive equipment. This year confirmed that our policy is correct, we are moving forward. Last year we had the first three-thousand-tonners, this year four-thousand-tonners, and so on. And the leaders today are those who strictly adhere to crop cultivation technology. In Tolochin, Orsha, and Dubrovno districts, the conditions are more favorable, and in the regional competition among districts byVitebsk region. Due to the organization of work, the level of management.
The chairman of the regional executive committee also noted the current result of optimizing the crop rotation structure. The region received more than 100 thousand tons of leguminous crops, twice as much as last year, and this will make it possible to balance the livestock diet with protein – their own, not purchased. Leguminous crops in the structure of sown areas are already 12 percent, and the task is to increase their volume to 15 percent. Its implementation is realistic, as their own seeds have already been stored for next year.
The Future of "Dazhynki"
The chairman of the regional executive committee was also asked whether it was possible to implement everything planned in preparation for the regional "Dazhynki" in Verkhnedvinsk, and what he sees as the future of the festival of rural workers?
Nikolai Sherstnev noted that "Dazhynki" is held primarily to pay tribute to the hardest work on the land, to emphasize the authority of farmers and to glorify them. Also, the essence of the holiday, its ideology, is to get a social effect from the improvement of small towns. And all this is not for show, not for the sake of beautiful words, but for the sake of creating more comfortable living conditions for people, so that young people stay and work in their native places. True, to a much lesser extent, the task of creating jobs is being solved during the preparation, but this cannot be done quickly and with budget funds; there must be systematic work by local authorities to attract investors to the regions.
Local media journalists: listening and taking notes.
As for making significant adjustments to the core of the holiday itself, according to the head of the region, there is hardly any need for this. But depending on the financial situation, it is necessary to increase the volume of work performed during preparation, to improve roads more, including inter-district ones. And the maximum task is to improve not one district center in this way per year, but at least two. Then our goal of making life in small towns comfortable and attractive will be achieved in the near future.
Rely More on Ourselves
Responding to journalists' requests for an assessment of the livestock industry's development level and the reality of foreign investment in its industrial-scale development, Nikolai Sherstnev stated that, unfortunately, there is little to boast about; our livestock industry is in the worst position among the regions. In the Vitebsk region, there are no modern state-owned pig complexes, only private ones, and only 20 percent of the existing dairy farms are new or reconstructed. It is understandable that pre-retirement and retirement-aged individuals work there; young people will not work in such conditions.
New facilities need to be built, but the indebtedness of farms is so deep that we have to look for other financing solutions, which significantly delays the timelines. Already developed projects will soon allow for the construction of approximately 10 farms, each with a capacity of 2,000 cows, whereas at least 30 are needed. This will enable us to increase herd productivity, reduce the cost of milk production, utilize processing capacities, and bring the rural economy back on track, making our products more competitive in domestic and foreign markets. However, we cannot count on foreign investors here. They often visit, look around, but concrete projects do not materialize. For the next three years, the region has set a goal to introduce 10 modern farms annually to eliminate the human factor. The same applies to pig farming. Four modern pig breeding complexes need to be built, and old premises should be renovated for fattening. Through this, we can double the volume of pork produced and reduce its cost.
New Construction Plus Major Repairs
Regarding the technical equipment of rural areas, the situation is also challenging. The region currently operates 6,900 tractors, and most of them are depreciated. Annual renewal is 3 percent, while it should be 10 percent. Technical lag is increasing, and the region cannot cope with this problem on its own. We are losing time, said Nikolai Nikolaevich; experienced machine operators are retiring, and we cannot assign young people to old equipment.
The republic must join, sources of funding must be sought, as it was in 2009-2010, when the region received 1000 grain harvesters in lieu of leasing, and 400-500 tractors were purchased. Time passes, and this fleet is nearing obsolescence. And one more thing. It is bad that our country has lost the technology for restoring agricultural machinery; no one does major repairs anymore. This must be revived in the region, otherwise, the material and technical base cannot be improved. Modern units allow for high productivity, ensure compliance with technology; instead of the current almost 7 thousand tractors, we need 1600 high-performance ones with a full set of wide-coverage mounted equipment (two per thousand hectares of arable land). This will also solve the problem of labor shortage.
On the benefits of incentives
Another question from the media: "What will the opening of agricultural classes in the region's schools and the introduction of other non-production innovative approaches give us?" A detailed answer followed. Every year, colleges and lyceums in the region graduate up to 800 skilled workers, but very few work in the agro-industrial complex, and more and more urban graduates are entering the veterinary academy, which also does not give them a chance to stay in agricultural enterprises. In this situation, to provide qualified specialists for the same modern farms under construction and to put knowledgeable people on computerized equipment, a number of measures have been developed in the region. A new remuneration system has been introduced, which is clear, stimulating, and higher at the start to retain young people. The duration of internships for students in agricultural institutions has been doubled, and it must take place in the best farms. Graduates will only be assigned to promising agricultural enterprises so that they do not leave the field forever after facing enormous difficulties. Agricultural classes, opened this year, will give their graduates the opportunity to enter universities through targeted enrollment. Thus, not immediately, not in one year, the region expects to renew the rural labor force and create conditions for their fruitful work. And this is again our ideology of developing the agro-industrial complex.
Flax growing strategy
What will be the approaches in flax cultivation? There was much talk about creating a holding company headed by a flax mill, but it was not realized. Is there any point in continuing to work in this vein? Life has already answered these questions. In the opinion of Nikolai Sherstnev, unification, even if only on a technological basis, but without proper financial support, yields nothing. This should have been done long ago, when the flax mill still had funds and could, and should have redistributed part of the added value to where the raw materials are produced – to new technologies, to good equipment. Today, it cannot make ends meet, and unification will only lead to unmanageability. In this case, our approach is as follows. We will improve the technological level of flax processing plants. Last year, with budget funds, we helped them restore individual nodes and units of the lines, and this year – to purchase 190 units of equipment for flax pulling and harvesting. These operations must be performed quickly, within 10-15 days, to obtain high-quality flax straw that has time to ret. And to load the capacities with raw materials. Next year, it is planned to refine all the equipment and deepen the modernization of the lines. So, here, as in other sectors, we have figured out the approaches, clearly understand what needs to be done, are looking for opportunities for this, and are doing it.
The press conference concluded with the presentation of a colorful photo album with the best shots from the "Dazhynki" festival-fair, featuring the chairman of the regional executive committee, to him by media representatives. Today in Verkhnedvinsk will enrich a possible second edition of this bright photo chronicle.