Addressing the forum, Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fyodorov named food security one of the key areas for providing national security. The state policy of developing an efficient agro-industrial complex, increasing the quality of life for rural residents, and preserving natural resources for agricultural production has allowed not only for boosting food production output volumes, but also making the agricultural sector resistant to risks and threats to food security.
The growth in national production has led to a gradual reduction of the Russian domestic market’s dependence upon imports of basic kinds of agricultural products and food, as well as increased exports, Mr Fyodorov said. Russia, he said, can and should become the world’s biggest supplier of foodstuffs, which is the aim set by President Vladimir Putin. The necessary preconditions for achieving this ambitious goal are in place, the Minister of Agriculture said.
Addressing the forum participants, Mr Fyodorov paid particular attention to the social development of villages and improving utility and social infrastructure in rural areas. These areas of work, he said, have gained strategic importance as they are indispensable for growth in agricultural production through increased labour efficiency and workforce capacity of the agro-industrial complex.
In an interview to Russian information agencies and television channels following the panel session, Mr Fyodorov named priorities for raising the efficiency of the national agro-industrial complex, spoke about the harvest forecast and grain exports in 2013, establishing an agriculture development institution, and state support for agriculture following Russia’s WTO accession.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture
