The first hour of the autumn session of the State Duma, held on Wednesday, September 19, was devoted to agriculture. As the chairman of the lower house Vyacheslav Volodin noted, there are many problems in the industry, but the constructive dialogue that legislators with the agrarian ministry managed to establish allows all the factions to actively contribute to solving vital issues for the villagers and to improve the efficiency of this sector of the economy. About the current situation in agriculture, said the head of the department Dmitry Patrushev. He noted that the weather conditions this year created certain difficulties for farmers. At the same time, the total area of ??crops in Russia was 79 million hectares, of which 52.5 million hectares were sown with spring crops. It is expected that the harvest-2018 will be 105 million tons. "This is a worthy harvest, which will allow farmers to guarantee good prices," Patrushev said, noting that this figure is above the average in recent years.

In all, about 73% of the harvested grain has been threshed at the moment, which amounted to 91 million tonnes. The harvest of oil crops is also encouraging - 16 million tons. So the production of vegetable oil in the country will be increased, the minister hopes.. Also, about 1 million tons of vegetables were harvested from the open ground. According to Patrushev, the department is now facing the task of returning arable land to circulation. "We plan to introduce about a million hectares," he said.. It is important that in parallel is the creation of a new infrastructure that will allow processing the harvest on site, which will significantly reduce losses. The department also works on import substitution. While this issue in Russia is not all smooth. In particular, up to now, 80% of the seeds of potatoes used for planting in Russia - imported. Seeds-hybrids of foreign breeding - 98%. Eliminate this gap should the federal scientific and technical program for the development of agriculture until 2025, said Patrushev. According to him, the emphasis in it is, first of all, on the import substitution of seeds. When this succeeds, one can speak about the creation of an export-oriented agro-industrial sector of the Russian economy. In the government's plans - by 2024. to export Russian agricultural products to the level of $ 50 billion. During the government hour, United Russia deputies inquired whether the agency intended to compensate for the losses suffered by agrarians due to weather conditions. "We will calculate the damage to the constituent entities of the Federation and we will report to the government on compensation to commodity producers," the minister answered affirmatively.. On another important point drew attention to the State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. According to him, many problems of the village, such as compensation for fuel costs, provision of schoolchildren with milk, complex social development of rural areas are often considered by departments on a residual principle. According to the speaker, responsibility for resolving all issues of the village should be assumed by the Ministry of Agriculture. To work out this possibility, the chairman of the State Duma instructed the head of the Duma committee on agrarian issues Vladimir Kashin and the vice-speaker of the State Duma Sergei Neverov. Volodin expressed hope that the constructive interaction of the lower chamber and the Cabinet will continue. "To ensure that the issues raised by the President on agricultural development, which we are working out with the government, are reflected," the speaker said, stressing that the villagers should feel support from the State Duma. Solving the problems of the agrarian sector is among the priorities of the State Duma of the seventh convocation. In December 2017 g.

large parliamentary hearings on the social and legal aspects of the development of agricultural territories took place. In the discussion, in addition to legislators and representatives of regional authorities, more than 300 agrarians from all over the country. The result was the initiative to create a new infrastructure in the countryside, the implementation of the state program of concessional lending for the construction of low-rise housing in rural areas, attracting investors to agriculture, etc..