The teleconference was attended by the governors of the Volgograd, Orenburg, Penza, Samara, Saratov and Ulyanovsk regions.

List of instructions following the conference call held by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich on 19 December 2012, on winter crops in the Russian Federation:

• The Ministry of Agriculture (Nikolai Fyodorov) with the support of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and concerned regional executive bodies:

• to monitor the situation with winter crops and report monthly to the Government of the Russian Federation;

• considering unfavourable agricultural and weather conditions for winter crops in some regions, to organise timely distribution of information for farmers to receive advice from research institutes and experts aimed at saving winter crops and gaining optimum harvests.

• The Ministry of Agriculture (Nikolai Fyodorov):

• to accelerate the preparation of regulatory acts aimed at implementing the State Programme for Agricultural Development and Regulation of Agricultural Products and Food Market for 2013-2020 (henceforward – the State Programme for 2013-2020); 

• to boost efforts to conclude agreements with the regions of the Russian Federation on extending federal subsidies to support farmers;

• to ensure the transfer of federal budget funds, allocated for agricultural support in 2013, by March 2013;

• The Ministry of Energy (Alexander Novak) and the Ministry of Agriculture (Nikolai Fyodorov) with the cooperation of oil companies supplying oil and lubricants to agricultural producers:

• to submit to the Russian Government the forecast for oil and lubricant prices in the first half of 2013.

• The Ministry of Agriculture (Nikolai Fyodorov) with the participation of regional executive bodies:

• to monitor the financial state of agricultural producers taking into account the  changes in mechanisms and levels of state support for agriculture in 2013 as well as the growing prices for grain and processed grain products. Following the monitoring, if necessary, submit to the Russian Government proposals on additional measures of state support for agricultural producers. Deadline – March 2013.

• The Ministry of Agriculture (Nikolai Fyodorov):

• based on the analysis of the grain market, submit to the Russian Government  proposals on expanding, if necessary, the grain supply inventory of the federal intervention fund when conducting state commodity interventions.

• Recommend to Rosselkhozbank and other banks extending loans to agricultural enterprises (organisations) to use a differentiated approach to different categories of borrowers (taking into account the implementation of liabilities and a region’s recommendation for each specific borrower).

• Recommend to regional bodies of state authority:

• to monitor the situation with winter crops;

• to take measures to supply seed to agricultural producers for spring sowing and a repeat sowing of the areas under perished winter crops including the use of elite seeds produced by the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ research centres;  

• to expedite the preparation of a regional legal framework for the implementation of the State Programme for 2013-2020;

• to set aside in the regional budgets the funds for the implementation of the State Programme for 2013-2020.