Russia to increase support for agriculture in 2012

The Russian government will increase support for the country’s agriculture by 10 percent in 2012 to 130 billion rubles, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

“We have decided to increase the allocation in 2012 to 130 billion rubles. We added 12 billion rubles to the initial project,” Putin told a meeting of Russian agrarians.

He added the funds would be allocated in the state program of Russian agriculture development to finance its core needs.

Putin has ordered the Russian agrarian movement to present their proposals while the government prepares a new state program for the next agricultural year. The new program should be approved by next summer.

Russia has already allocated 120 million rubles in 2011 for registration of land, and next year the funding will increase to 1 billion rubles, Putin said. A new program of support for start-up farms is planned to be started in 2012, with 2 billion rubles set aside.

Putin added that not all the 320 billion ruble allocated by the state in 2010-2011 reached the farmers and Putin ordered the Agriculture Ministry to investigate the situation and bring the money to farmers together with the regions.

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