Russia's grain harvest to reach 92-93 mln tonnes in clean weight in 2011 - Zubkov
VELIKIYE LUKI, Russia. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Russia's grain harvest in clean weight will total 92-93 million tonnes this year, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said at a meeting with students of the Velikiye Luki State Agriculture Academy on Friday.
Russia harvested 60.9 million tonnes of grain in 2010 due to abnormally high temperatures, he said.
As of November 1, the bulk grain harvest was 97 million tonnes in bunker weight.
This year, Russian farmers were able to overcome the 2009-2010 economic crisis and drought thanks to government support. The gross sugar beet harvest reached a record 48 million tonnes, of which 5.2-5.5 million tonnes will be set aside to produce sugar so as to avoid importing raw sugar, Zubkov said.
At a later meeting with agro-business representatives from the Pskov region, Zubkov said that government support for the agricultural-industrial complex grew by over 1.5-fold over 2008-2011. Against a plan of 421.3 billion rubles, 635.5 billion rubles were allocated to the sector. "That is a decent amount of money," he said.
All of the current government support for the agro-industrial complex will be carried over into next year, Zubkov said. As in past years, 3.5 billion rubles will be earmarked for the development of livestock breeding. Subsidies for investment loans will grow 7 billion rubles to 52 billion rubles. Small-scale agriculture in villages will receive 6.3 billion rubles, 400 million more rubles than in 2010, he said.