ЮГ Times. Reviewing the consequences of the so-called ‘tractor march’ of the Kuban farmers, we asked Prof. Vasili Komlatsky, D.Sc., head of a chair of the Kuban State Agrarian University, Honoured Scientist of Russia, to reveal the real problems of the agricultural sector and show possible ways to solve them.
Q.: When commenting on the situation with the ‘tractor march’ to some federal media, you were quoted as noting that the key problem of the farmers is lack of cooperation…
A.: Petty farms hardly can compete with huge agricultural holdings, because there is no real cooperation in Russia as it is in Europe where farmers are main manufacturers of agricultural products involved in all sorts of cooperation in product processing, stocking up and sales - and even in banking activities. So the notion of cooperation encompasses the whole infrastructure.
I am confident that it was because of the lack of such procurement agencies that killed the governmental initiative on development of alternative cattle-breeding.
Q.: What do you think of the recent ‘tractor march’? What had in your opinion caused it?
A.: As for me, I do not support suchlike protests organized to publicize their initiators rather than to show where the problem is. Such action may have been a good business for somebody, for it was not a cheap undertaking… At the same time, I cannot but acknowledge that there are lots of problems at local levels that local officials may not be solving for quite a long time.
What had prevented the farmers from announcing their questions earlier? I think - the fact that local bureaucrats are really afraid of some independent force beyond their control that may dare raise problems at the regional or even federal levels.
Q.: What in your opinion is needed to have the farms take up cattle-breeding? For this agricultural activity is not as profitable as, say, exports of cereals.
A.: What is needed is first of all a tough and determined political or administrative decision. The authorities should ask a farmer who took 5,000 hectares of land from the state land fund - why don’t you breed cattle? The answer is clear: because he will gain up to 300% profit by growing cereal crops and selling them abroad. But cattle-breeding is a strategic state task that serves state interests.
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