Engagement Of Big Business In Agriculture Main Tendency In The Development Of Russian Agriculture

The engagement of big business in agriculture is a major tendency in the development of agriculture in Russia, along with the recovery of collective and state farms and the development of private farming. This statement was made by the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma's committee for economic policy and entrepreneurship, Viktor Semyonov, at an international agricultural forum in Moscow on Thursday. By way of example, he cited a large agrarian project by the Interros group which has announced its plans to invest $100 million in agricultural production and cultivate up to one million hectares of land. Semyonov said that in the Belgorod Region (western Russia), too, large agro-industrial holding companies cultivate a large part of farmland. The main task of authorities in these conditions is to create new rules of the game on this promising market, he said. Currently, the State Duma is drafting a law on the financial recovery of agricultural enterprises, Semyonov said, adding that legislators believe that 30 percent of these enterprises can still be recovered by rescheduling their debts for ten years. Semyonov told the forum that the State Duma will also support the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade's draft law on the self-regulation of business organizations.