Krasnodar, 8 August – Yug Times. The harvesting of early grain crops has been completed in the Kuban region. The quality of this year's harvest has decreased due to the adverse weather conditions. At the same time, about 87 per cent of the total volume of grain is of food grade. Where will this year's harvest go and how have sanctions affected the export of Kuban wheat? Why have the prices of seasonal fruits and vegetables gone up in the region? Where do farmers buy agricultural machinery that works in the fields of the region today? These and other questions were addressed by Andrei Korobka, Vice-Governor of Krasnodar Krai, who supervises the agro-industrial complex.
Q.: What are the results of early grain crops harvesting in the Krasnodar region?
A.: Kuban farmers began the harvesting season two weeks earlier than usual. Still, I consider the result to be quite good: 11.9 million tonnes harvested. Of these, 10.2 million tonnes were wheat. Of course, we did not reach the records of previous years, but this result exceeds the figures of 2023. New high-potential varieties of Kuban selection appeared in the region. Some of them yielded nine to ten tonnes per hectare. This shows that domestic plant selection is moving in the right direction.
Q.: What is the reason for the noticeable increase in prices for seasonal fruits and vegetables in the Kuban region? Farmers complain that the reason is the shortage of labour resources, which arose against the background of work restrictions for foreign citizens.
A.: One of our farmers, who grows raspberries on 70 hectares, told me that all berries, which he did not have time to cover with a canopy, got burned, only two or three hectares remained. The same is true for vegetables in the open ground. The second reason is the lack of labour. Now the region is going through a transition period. We are working out a concept of further actions. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture are co-operating on this issue. In the Soviet Union, there used to be student brigades. For some reason, we stopped developing this trend and decided to solve the problem of staff shortages with the help of migrants. Meanwhile, in Krasnodar Krai there are 26 colleges that train agricultural specialities.
They have 11,000 students. This is plenitude. Today we need to involve them in practical training on farms to receive specialists who can perform pruning of fruit trees and grapevines, setting up crops and other technological manipulations. All that is required from the students is a desire. It is important that agricultural producers cooperate. The students' labour should be paid for. From September this year, the regional Ministry of Education will increase the number of budget-supported places for agricultural specialities. During this transitional period, we will support our producers.
For example, if a farmer was growing vegetables and had to halve the growing area, we will consider the possibility of compensating for part of the costs. In some cases, farmers incurred costs because they had to raise the wages of the workers engaged in the harvesting. By the way, this also affected the cost of production. We will support them in this situation, because there is no other way out - we need to improve our work methods.
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