The Ministry of Agriculture (Minselkhoz) is the federal executive body responsible for:

drafting and implementing government policy and legal regulation in the agriculture and related industries, including livestock farming (including breeding of domesticated fish species included in the State Register of Protected Breeding Achievements), veterinary services, including pharmaceuticals, crop production, phytosanitary control, soil improvement and fertility, regulation of the farm produce, raw materials and foodstuffs markets, the food and food processing industry, the production and distribution of tobacco products, and the sustainable development of rural areas;

drafting state policy and legal regulation in the fisheries industry, including fishing and fish farming (aquaculture), conservation of water biological resources, the manufacture, processing and sale of fish and other products from water biological resources, the business activities of fishing vessels; the protection, study, preservation and replacement of marine wildlife and protection of their natural habitats, excluding water biological resources in federal protected nature areas and listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation; ensuring the safe operation of fishing vessels, as well as emergency and rescue work in fishing areas during fishing expeditions; and the supervision and control over water biological resources and protection of their natural habitats in Russia’s inland waters;

drafting and implementing state policy and legal regulation in the field of land relations (in the case of farmland), ensuring state monitoring of such land;

providing state services related to agriculture, including the sustainable development of rural areas;

managing state property at enterprises and organisations subordinate to the ministry.