The Farmer's Day was held as part of the AgroOmsk-2018 exhibition

The heads of peasant farms in municipal districts visited the experimental fields of the Omsk Agricultural Research Center, watched a demonstration of agricultural machinery and exchanged experiences.

On July 19, the agrotechnical exhibition-fair AgroOmsk-2018 continued its work for all residents of Omsk and guests of the city. As part of the business program for heads of peasant farms, a "Farmer's Day" was held with the participation of representatives of the regional Ministry of Agriculture, Science and the president of the Association of Farms of the Omsk region, Ivan Brigert.

Maxim Chekusov, Minister of Agriculture, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. He spoke about the activities of peasant farms in the region and informed farmers about government support measures.  Thus, as of January 1 of this year, 2,307 peasant farms were registered in the Omsk region, of which only 1,789 farms are active. Farmers cultivate 817 hectares of arable land. The number of cattle is 36 thousand heads, pigs – 14 thousand heads and 74 thousand heads of poultry. In 2017, 1,023 farmers received support in the amount of 661 million rubles. This year, the regional Ministry of Agriculture has already brought 493.7 million rubles to farmers.  Grant support in 2018 amounted to 175 million rubles for novice farmers and those who create a family livestock farm. More and more farmers are now going into animal husbandry and achieving good production performance.

Maxim Chekusov, speaking about concessional lending, noted that this year it has become much better to provide loans compared to 2017. To date, farmers have received 251 loans worth 1 billion. 204 million rubles. "Soft loans have become more affordable for farmers, and we will continue to monitor market conditions. Today we see that compensation for fuel and lubricants will be paid, and work in this direction will continue," the Minister stressed.

Recall that at the initiative of the head of the region, Alexander Burkov, the Government of the Russian Federation decided to compensate for the cost of fuel during the sowing campaign. 5 billion rubles were allocated for this, of which 204 million rubles went to the Omsk region. The regional budget will add another 33 million to this amount as part of the co-financing. Thus, the sum of 237 million rubles will be distributed among farmers. And the Federal Ministry of Agriculture plans to increase this amount.  

Maxim Chekusov said that the regional Ministry is in the process of forming a budget for the next year, which provides for increased financing for mineral fertilizers, technical re-equipment and is considering subsidizing energy-intensive tractors.  In addition, the Minister focused on a significant increase in elite seed crops, for which a subsidy of about 150 million rubles has been allocated this year. And today, as Maxim Chekusov noted, elite seeds, taking into account subsidies, are cheaper than for marketable grain.

The most important thing, according to the Minister, is the social development of the village and the involvement of young specialists to work in farms, and for this it is necessary to create comfortable conditions.

After the official part, the heads of peasant farms of the Omsk region visited the experimental fields of the Omsk Agricultural Research Center, where they were presented with varieties of soft spring wheat - Katyusha and Element – 22, which are resistant to stem rust, as well as varieties of barley, peas, soybeans and winter wheat.

A demonstration of modern agricultural machinery from the Pegasus company (the representative in Omsk is Sibirskaya Baza), Rostselmash, Agrocomplete, Sib–Agro and other manufacturers took place in the experimental fields.