NATURAL RESOURCE ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

In order to strengthen State monitoring of the quality of agricultural products, raw materials and food, and to provide high-quality food products to the population and raw materials for production to enterprises in the processing industry, there are plans to strengthen the lines of State management by means of services to ensure the quality of agricultural products, raw materials and food of subjects of the Russian Federation and administrative districts; and to enhance the role of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as the main federal executive body for the management of the agro-industrial complex and the food supply. 

Proposals have been drawn up for the inclusion within the functions of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of monitoring and inspection functions, the licensing of specific types of activity, the formulation and approval of regulations on questions of production, accounting, processing technologies and the rational use of agricultural products, raw materials and food, ensuring their safekeeping, and the accreditation of research laboratories which carry out quality control of food.

In order to ensure the stability of food markets, a legislative basis and a State programme for the development of these markets are needed. By decree No. 689 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 9 June 1997, an interdepartmental commission was established for the purpose of reviewing and submitting in the prescribed manner to the Government of the Russian Federation the standard-setting documents regulating the activities of wholesale food markets; the commission considered and adopted a framework for the development of wholesale food markets and the draft federal law "On wholesale food markets".

The Law on Conservation of the Natural Environment and the Water Code of the Russian Federation establish the requirements with respect to conservation of soil and sources of water from pollution by manure, fertilizers and pesticides.

In the context of the implementation of Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1300 of 17 December 1997 confirming the national security concept, the proposed food security doctrine of the Russian Federation was prepared and approved by the Interdepartmental Commission of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and by the Government of the Russian Federation. The confirmed doctrine may become the basis for formulating and implementing the State food policy, and will enable federal and regional executive government agencies to make use of the provisions of the doctrine in preparing documents on ensuring the country's food supply and on developing agro-industrial complex.

In order to fulfill the conditions needed to ensure the food security in the country, the Government of the Russian Federation promulgated a number of laws and normative instruments, as follows:

• Russian Federation Act No. 5151-1 of 10 June 1993 on certifying products and services, and the subsequent amendments thereto;

• Act No. 2-FZ of 9 December 1995 on protecting consumer rights;

• State standard No. 51074-97 on foodstuffs, consumer information and general requirements;

• Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 799 of 12 July 1996 on measures to protect the consumer market of the Russian Federation from penetration by substandard imported goods;

• Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1263 of 29 September 1997 confirming the regulation on conducting inspections of substandard and dangerous foodstuffs and produce and on their use or destruction, which was issued to protect the health of the population from substandard products and prevent their distribution on the consumer market of the Russian Federation;

• Russian Federation Act No. 4979-1 of 14 May 1993 instructing the State Veterinary Service to conduct veterinary and sanitary inspections of produce and products of animal origin and other special veterinary and sanitary measures to ensure product safety and protect the population from illnesses common to human beings and animals and from food poisoning.

In view of the situation which developed in the national food market as a result of the breakdown of the economic ties between food producers and individual food consumers following the elimination of the centralized system of planning and distribution of material and technical resources, and also in order to protect national commodity producers, by decree No. 1767 of the President of the Russian Federation of 27 October 1993 entitled "On the regulation of land relations and the development of agrarian reform in the Russian Federation" and decision No. 1121 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 3 December 1994 entitled "On the establishment of a federal food corporation and a system of wholesale food markets", a decision was taken to establish a system of wholesale food markets and for them to be regulated by the State.

In order to upgrade measures for the safe use of pesticides in the territory of the Russian Federation, federal act No. 109-FZ of 19 July 1997 entitled "The safe use of pesticides and agro-chemicals" was adopted, providing for a range of legislative measures designed to protect man and the environment; in particular, registration tests of pesticides and agro-chemicals (toxic-hygienic, environmental assessments), and subsequent State registration in the case of positive results.

In development of that act, the State chemical commission, along with the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, has drawn up rules for the transportation, storage and use of pesticides and agro-chemicals (currently in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for registration).

The import of pesticides into the territory of the Russian Federation is effected under licensing. The decision on import is taken by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. A license is issued by the Ministry of Trade. In the territory of the Russian Federation, the circulation of pesticides which have not been registered by the State is prohibited.

In accordance with the federal act on agricultural cooperation, measures are being taken to broaden and strengthen the cooperative sector by organizing agricultural production cooperatives and providing them with State support.

The priorities in this area are to establish farmers’ cooperatives for the joint use of equipment and joint land cultivation; set up cooperative machine and equipment support stations and centres for the rental of complex and specialized equipment; and establish cooperatives for the provision of materials, machinery and agricultural services and for the processing of agricultural produce.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture of the Russian Federation prepared a federal act on rural credit cooperatives, which was adopted on 8 December 1995 under number 193-FZ.

By 2001, a credit system should be established for rural cooperatives, intended, first and foremost, for agricultural producers and citizens living in rural areas.

Despite the fact that as early as 1991 and 1992, legislative acts were adopted providing for the transfer to local government authorities of responsibility for social and communal institutions, agricultural enterprises are still responsible for providing social services. That draws their financial and managerial resources away from commercial tasks, hinders their restructuring and keeps villagers dependent on services provided by them, which also lessens the incentives of rural people to transfer their land and property shares to other, perhaps more effective, enterprises and/or to farms.

In the Russian Federation, the breeding of pedigree animals, and the production and use of pedigree products are governed by Federal Act No. 123-FZ of 3 August 1995 on pedigree breeding, Federal Act No. 5605-1 of 6 August 1993 on achievements in selective animal breeding, and the legal and standard-setting enactments related to them. 

Key areas for improvement in Russian agriculture include:

• Changes in the social and economic structure of agriculture.
• Development of domestic production as a key factor in the sustainable development of agriculture.
• A programmatic approach to problem solving.
• Improvement of the legislative framework and economic machinery of the interrelationship between agriculture and the environment.
• More efficient land use.
• Re-equipment of agriculture with a new generation of high-output technology which can meet contemporary environmental requirements.

The strategy for developing land relations is being carried out in the context of the implementation of the federal target-oriented programme on the development of the land reform in the Russian Federation for the period 1999-2002, as confirmed by resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 694 of 26 June 1999.

The goal of the programme is the formulation and implementation of a package of interrelated legal and other measures making it possible on the whole to complete the implementation of the land reform in the Russian Federation by the beginning of 2002, and, in the post-reform stage, to begin creating an effective mechanism for regulating land relations and State management of land resources. 

The programme is funded through the financial resources of the federal budget, the budget resources of the subjects of the Russian Federation, and other sources.

The national environmental action plan of the Russian Federation for 1999-2001 was considered at a meeting of the Government of the Russian Federation (report No. 41 of 12 November 1998) and recommended to the executive bodies for use in practical environmental protection activities. 

The national action plan provides an integral assessment of environmental problems by milieux and regions, defines the environmental aspects of the development of the agro-industrial complex, and summarizes the priority directions for the solution of environmental problems in 1999-2001 and urgent measures to improve the existing system of environmental protection and use of the natural environment, including measures to help alleviate environmental problems in the agro-industrial complex of the Russian Federation.

Support for the rural population is provided almost exclusively through the agricultural policy. 

Decision-Making: Major Groups Involvement

No information is available

The Programme of Stabilization and Development of Agro-Industrial Production for 1996-2000 envisages the creation of the economic preconditions and economic infrastructure for increased production and market activity on the part of agricultural producers.

The national priority for the Russian Federation is the increase of agricultural production and improvement of consumer supplies of environmentally sound food products. Generally speaking, the situation of Russia's agriculture and food supply market must be described as problematic. A whole range of measures is required, together with a consistent macroeconomic, agrarian and foreign trade policy for the development of domestic production as a key factor in the sustainable development of agriculture. This was the reason for the drafting the Programme of Stabilization and Development of Agro-Industrial Production for 1996-2000, which has been confirmed by the President of the Russian Federation. This programme gives priority to the creation of the economic preconditions and infrastructure for increased production and market activity on the part of agricultural producers.

What is envisaged is a system of measures of State regulation and solid support for the country's agro-industrial complex. The implementation of this programme is designed to ensure the sustainable development of Russia's agriculture and secure a substantial improvement in the supply of consumer foodstuffs.

Taking into account the framework for the development of wholesale food markets, a draft federal programme entitled "The development of wholesale food markets up to 2005" is being finalized.

The main objective of the system of wholesale food markets is to connect the territory of the Russian Federation into a single food area with optimal routes for the movement of nationally produced goods in order to reduce their cost and increase their competitiveness.

The solution of environmental problems in the agro-industrial complex is envisaged in programmes for the stabilization and reform of the agro-industrial complex approved by the Government of the Russian Federation which provide for a transition to a new generation of agricultural systems (typographical and so forth); technologies for growing agricultural crops which ensure the prevention of soil compaction, degradation and erosion, environmental balance, and the safe use of mineral fertilizers and chemical methods of plant protection; and other measures.

The integral federal programme for increasing the fertility of soils in the Russian Federation ("Fertility") was drawn up by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture along with the ministries and departments concerned in accordance with decree No. 879 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 17 November 1992 and Government instruction No. AZ-P1 of 28 December 1994. The second stage of the programme (1996-2000) envisages the further implementation of environmentally targeted measures, including, in the first place, the protection of soils from erosion, the re-cultivation of degraded lands, and the restoration of land contaminated by petroleum and petroleum products, heavy metals, radioactive substances and other contaminants, and so forth.

A range of measures aimed at increasing soil fertility and land protection is also envisaged in the special purpose federal programme entitled "Development of land reform in the Russian Federation for 1999-2002" which develops the provisions of the special purpose federal programme for the stabilization and development of agro-industrial production in the Russian Federation for 1996-2000, approved by decree No. 933, of 18 June 1996, of the President of the Russian Federation.

In order to prevent damage to the agro-industrial complex, special purpose federal programmes have been drawn up for the period 1998-2000 entitled: "Prevention of epizootics and elimination of their consequences" and "Prevention of epizootics and massive attacks on plants by pests and elimination of their consequences" and also programmes to protect the agricultural producers of a number of territories of the Russian Federation.

In order to ensure sustainable development, enhance the effectiveness of the farming and cooperative sectors as an integral part of the mixed agrarian economy and improve the social protection of farmers in a market economy, the Government of the Russian Federation on 18 December 1996 adopted, through decision No. 1499, a federal target-oriented programme for the development of farms and cooperatives for the period from 1996 to 2000.

The programme makes provision for a strategy to establish the organizational, economic, financial, legal and social conditions for developing farms and cooperatives, improving State support mechanisms for the farming sector, moving ahead with land reform and the reform of land ownership, ensuring the right of citizens to land and setting up a market and social infrastructure based on cooperation and integration. Its implementation will make it possible to develop the farming, cooperative and small-scale commodity sectors and to increase their contribution to the agrarian economy of the Russian Federation.

The years of reform in Russia have seen radical changes in the structure of agriculture. Virtually all agricultural enterprises have been reformed, about 300,000 peasant farms have been established, and the processing and marketing of agricultural products have undergone significant changes as a result of widespread privatization.

However, unfavourable developments in general economic conditions at certain stages and the serious financial difficulties, together with the problems of the transitional period in agriculture itself, could not fail to have an impact on the sector. This impact has manifested itself in particular in a decline in State allocations, the emergence of price disparities for the means of production and for farm output, and a significant decrease in the supply of the means of production. In addition to all this there is the openness of the external market, which has created serious competition for the Russian producer. Today Russia imports more than a quarter of its consumer meat products and a seventh of its dairy products. At the same time, Russia generally manages to avoid importing grain and a number of other basic agricultural products.

The food security of the Russian Federation should be ensured through:

• The conformity of the quality of food products produced and made by citizens of the Russian Federation to the State system of standards;

• The necessary level of production of domestic food products in the Russian Federation;

• The availability, renewal and replenishment of the State food reserve regardless of the impact of unfavourable internal and external factors;

• If the consumption of food products by certain categories of the population falls below physiological nutritional norms in the country as a whole or in certain subjects of the Russian Federation, the competent organs of executive power may, for a limited period and in order to prevent a food emergency, impose special regimes to ensure food security, including food rationing measures.

A federal bill on the quality and safety of foodstuffs was drafted. Proposals for finalizing the text have been sent by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and by the State Committee on Standardization, Mensuration and Certification (Gosstandart) to the Government of the Russian Federation.

State monitoring of measures to ensure food safety and security is carried out with a view to implementing the legislation in force, giving effect to State guarantees in the field of food safety and security and carrying out programmes and measures to ensure food safety and security, including actions to protect the population in food emergency situations.

State monitoring of food security is carried out by the Government of the Russian Federation, the executive government agencies of subjects of the Russian Federation, and also State services and inspectorates which, within the limits of their jurisdiction, monitor individual aspects of food security. Other federal executive bodies may perform State monitoring functions only on the instructions of the Government of the Russian Federation.

All organizations involved in the production, storage and marketing of food products, regardless of type of ownership and production capacity, are subject to State monitoring.

In implementation of the various government decisions, work is under way in many areas of the Russian Federation to establish wholesale food markets. For example, basic models of markets: provider (in Volgograd) and consumer (in Tula), have been established and approved. At the wholesale food market base in Volgograd, a training centre has been established for refresher courses and training of specialists from other areas of the Russian Federation.

The experience of basic, legally established food markets has shown the need to establish a single information field, linking the system of wholesale food markets.

The Government of the Russian Federation guarantees the equal rights of citizens in respect of ensuring the economic and physical accessibility of food to meet the physiological nutrition requirements of each citizen, regardless of age, social and official status, or place of stay or residence.

The services and inspectorates within the jurisdiction of the Ministry carry out continuous State monitoring of the production, storage and marketing of food products in all organizations regardless of type of ownership. The balance of food consumption and food production in the Russian Federation is the basis of the system of economic accounting involving an assessment of the standard of living of the population and an assessment of actual nutrition, and is also the basis for planning the production of essential food products.

The Government of the Russian Federation establishes the balance of food consumption and food production by calculating the average per capita requirements of the population of the Russian Federation for basic food items and energy, taking into account the structure of population distribution by age, sex, working conditions, climate, and also ethnic and other local characteristics of the food ration of the population.

The legislation of the Russian Federation allows the transfer of arable land to other uses. In 1990, the total area of farmland was 222,128,000 hectares, of which 132,308,500 was pastureland. As of 1 January 1998 the area had decreased slightly and amounted to 221,462,000 and 127,822,000 hectares respectively. An analysis of changes in the area of farmland and pastureland in the Russian Federation in 1990-1998 showed that there were three main reasons for the decrease in the area of farmland and pastureland used by agricultural enterprises and organizations and by individuals, which together accounted for 84.15 and 85.86 per cent of the losses respectively:

• The conversion of agricultural land to the reserve category, including the redistribution fund established as a result of the reorganization of agricultural enterprises;

• The transfer of land to ownership by rural settlements, i.e., to the category of land belonging to rural settlements;

• The conversion of pastureland to fallow land and land used for fodder crops.

Conversion to non-agricultural land as a result of surveys and adjustments (8.6 per cent and 6 per cent) also had a perceptible impact on the decrease of the area of agricultural land.

In 1997 the rural population (40 million people) constituted 27 per cent of the total population of the Russian Federation. This proportion had increased slightly compared with 1990 (by 1 per cent), since during the period 1990-1996 the rural population increased by 3 per cent, while the total population of the Russian Federation fell by 1 per cent. The rural economy still depends to a significant extent on agriculture, since nearly 50 per cent of the economically active population of rural areas is engaged in agriculture. In the 1990s the proportion of the economically active population to the total population in rural areas remained stable at a level of 52 per cent, which is considerably lower that the comparable figure for the urban population (59 per cent).

The situation as regards the wages of agricultural workers remains very fraught. In 38 regions the wages of rural inhabitants are below the subsistence level. Despite being the lowest wages of any sector of the economy of the Russian Federation, these wages are not even paid all the time because of the extremely difficult financial situation of enterprises. At the end of 1997 wage arrears in agriculture amounted to 7.96 trillion roubles.

Between 1986 and 1996, through the implementation of the general framework for combating the desertification of black earth and Kizlyarsk pastureland, a radical change was achieved in the situation in the region. Processes of degradation were halted, and the first man-made desert in Europe was reduced from 600,000 hectares to 235,000 hectares. In the improved areas the topography was substantially restructured, and convenient, multi-tiered, high-yield pastureland and other farmland was formed.

In this region, however, the area of land requiring improvement remains large: in Kalmykia, 2.5 million hectares; in the Astrakhan region, 1.3 million hectares; in Dagestan, 800,000 hectares; and in the Stavropol district, 700,000 hectares.

System of sustainable plant nutrition in order to increase food production

In the Russian Federation, biologically based (environmental) systems of agriculture are being put into effect. In these systems, along with the introduction of a biogeocenotic basis for crop growing using chemical methods, strict, environmentally based standardized requirements are being introduced for the application rate, forms, duration and methods of the application of nutritive elements, which will lead to the integration of the agricultural crop nutrition and environmental protection system.

The correctness and validity of the regulations for fertilizers is verified on the basis of a balance of the basic nutritive substances in the system: soil-fertilizer-plant, which makes it possible to monitor and specifically regulate the content of nutritional elements in the soil.

In recent years, no more than one-third of the funds required for the operation and renewal of irrigation and water-supply equipment has been appropriated. Even in drought years, only half the area served by the irrigation network has been watered. The total area of irrigated land declined from 6.2 million hectares on 1 January 1991 to 4.7 million hectares on 1 January 1998, a drop of 1.5 million hectares, or 24 per cent.

Some 3.2 million hectares of forest have been planted on agricultural land. On parcels of land cultivated by more than 2,000 users, complete agro-forest tracts have been created, where field and forest reclamation has been most effective. Of the 640,000 hectares of shifting sands in the western Caspian region, over 400,000 hectares were made into agricultural land over a three-year period through agrosilviculture techniques.

Sizeable tracts of land (139.4 million hectares, or 8.2 per cent) are waterlogged or marshland. Most of the swamps are concentrated in forests. Their area amounts to 100.2 million hectares (out of 898.3 million hectares of forest), and they occupy 15.1 million hectares of reserve land. The presence of swamps on land designated for agricultural use and the constant growth of such swamps testify to the low level of agriculture and the gradual winding down of amelioration work. Since 1990, the area of marshes in this category has increased by 4 million hectares, to reach 20.6 million hectares by 1 January 1999.

Energy sources

In most of the rural regions there is significant potential for conserving energy or replacing energy sources which are in short supply through the use of local fuels, biomass, recoverable plant and wood waste or alternative and small-scale energy sources. However, this potential has not been put to use or is being used very inefficiently. Because of the sparse distribution and low power consumption of consumers in rural areas, it is not worthwhile to supply energy from a central power source because of transmission losses in the distribution grid. In addition, in rural areas there is considerable potential for the use of small, autonomous generators using renewable energy sources (such as solar, wind and small-scale hydroelectric power).

By 2005, the energy requirements of the Russian agro-industrial complex will rise by some 15 to 25 per cent. At the same time, the production of virtually all types of agricultural produce in Russia consumes a great deal of fuel and energy. Russian agricultural production consumes between two and five times more energy than agricultural production in the advanced countries.

The transfer of land from agricultural enterprises to rural villages means that the agricultural land which in general had previously belonged to agricultural enterprises is now beginning to be used in garden plots, for individual and collective animal husbandry and for private subsidiary plots.

The majority of workers in rural areas have a low level of qualification, which hinders their mobility. Since non-farm employment is slow to develop in rural areas, reorganized agricultural enterprises see the need to maintain their workforces despite the fact that there has been a sharp drop in production. In the short term, this policy has helped to reduce social tensions in rural areas, but it has also delayed the effective reorganization of enterprises and increased the amount of hidden unemployment. With a few regional variations, the official level of registered unemployment in rural areas is generally low, but that does not include uncounted unemployment in such areas.

With regard to hunting game, the State policy for the preservation of the genetic diversity of hunted animals involves licensing. The monitoring component is one of the most important parts of the licensing system. The main steps in developing a scientific and methodological system of game monitoring are designed to bring about a transition from species monitoring to population monitoring. Russian game birds such as geese and ducks migrate outside the limits of the Russian Federation, and the problem of the use of such game resources outside of the borders of the Russian Federation can only be resolved through the gradual adoption of a full-scale licensing scheme covering both population and species for these resources. That would make it possible at the State level to tackle the question of establishing between both States quotas for migrating game and of conserving of such game.

Support for the rural population is provided through the agrarian policy. However, the services provided cannot be supported at the required levels because of limited State resources. In 1995 approximately one-quarter of the population had monetary income less than the official minimum living standard. In 1996, the proportion dropped to 21.6 per cent, but the percentage of poor people varied from one region to another, ranging from 13.3 per cent to 74.6 per cent. Of all the regions, Moscow has the highest per capita income level, the lowest unemployment and the lowest poverty level in the country. Household surveys confirm that those families which have private plots and/or are engaged in black-market activities suffer less from poverty.

The social and economic situation within the agro-industrial complex of the Russian Federation remains extremely complicated and is worsening in many respects.

The beginning of 1998, following the relatively favourable natural conditions of 1997, created a certain basis for the possible stabilization of production and for gradually emerging from the difficult financial situation; subsequently, however, the severe drought which affected a significant portion of the country's agricultural regions, followed by the consequences of the August economic crisis, led to an even greater slump in agro-industrial production.

The unfavourable social and economic situation in agro-industrial production and in the rural social sphere in turn is hampering the rational transformation of institutions and the formation of effective interregional systems. Further stagnation is occurring in the branches of industry which provide material and technical resources and services to the agro-industrial complex.

All of this makes it necessary to elaborate additional measures to overcome the slump, strengthen the financial situation of agricultural and other commodity producers within the agro-industrial complex, and make use of existing opportunities to improve the organization and technology of production. At the same time there is a need to enhance market mechanisms and establish a more favourable macroeconomic situation within the agro-industrial complex.

Because of the lack of cash, rural inhabitants cannot pay for the most basic consumer goods and services. With the development of paid medical, educational and cultural services and a substantial increase in the cost of communal services and of consumer and transport services, a further downturn is occurring in the social sphere of rural areas, which involves a decline of not only the level, but also the quality of life in rural areas.

The gap between the cost of labour and its real value is having an adverse effect on the state of the domestic market. Since wages equal income, they are determining the aggregate demand of the population and, consequently, the structure and dynamics of production. 

In the context of the implementation of the agriculture reform implementation support project (ARIS) of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, an information and advisory service is being established in 26 subjects of the Russian Federation and is intended to play an important role in the establishment of stable agricultural systems ensuring food security.

A federal farmer information and advisory service, which includes providers of information for the agro-industrial complex, is now being set up. It involves computerized data collection, processing, storage and follow-up until the information reaches producers through regional and district structures. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture of the Russian Federation has Internet access, and on its Web page the Ministry publishes information concerning agricultural produce markets, statistical information on the Russian Federation’s regions, agricultural press reviews and other information which is available to anyone interested. The URL address is http://www.aris.ru .

As at 1 July 1999, farmer information and advisory services were being established or were in operation in 51 regions of the Russian Federation. Such services have been established in 29 regions as structural subdivisions in administrative bodies of the agro-industrial complex; in 10 as State enterprise units; in eight as part of further training and skill enhancement institutions for agro-industrial high-level supervisory staff and specialists; in three within institutions of higher education; and in one as part of a scientific research institute.

Under the World Bank’s ARIS Project, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is setting up a Market Information System (MIS), including a system of price monitoring and a data-analysis service.

The aim of the MIS is to collect, process, prepare and make available to all market players real-time, authoritative information on pricing trends and the current market status of, and forecasts for, the major types of agricultural production and foods. The MIS operates at three levels. Its central division was set up on the basis of the Department of Economics of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and regional and district subdivisions services were established on the basis of the corresponding administrative bodies of the agro-industrial complex. MIS subdivisions have now been established in 36 subjects of the Russian Federation, and work is continuing on involving more regions in the project. Price monitoring information and analytical and forecasting material are exchanged between the Russian MIS and similar services in the United States of America, Poland, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova.

Russian agrarian science and production use advanced methodology and modern technologies which ensure the effectiveness of work to eliminate harmful processes and restore the economic potential of degraded land. An example is the large-scale land improvement work in south-west Prikaspiya, which is one of several southern areas of the Russian Federation in which livestock can be kept on pastures all year round and warm-weather crops can be grown.

Protective tree plantings are the most effective, environmentally clean and capital-intensive means of protecting soils from erosion. It should be stressed that protective forest development is a technique which provides protection against natural disasters (dust storms, hot dry winds, desertification and so forth) which are capable of giving rise to emergency situations, with all their adverse consequences, including environmental disasters in certain areas of the Russian Federation. Over 2,000 farms have fully completed systems of protective tree plantings, which have created a pleasant and stable agro-environmental setting and helped increase the productivity of agricultural land.

Every year 20-40,000 hectares of protective tree plantings are established in the Russian Federation. The scale of agro-forestry improvement activities needs to be gradually increased and it must be ensured that the "Fertility" programme is implemented in respect of establishing protective tree plantings in farmland and protecting fertility.

The scientifically based requirement for all types of protective plantings has been determined to be an area of 14 million hectares.

Comprehensive protection is ensured through a range of agro-technical, chemical and biological methods, taking into account the economic thresholds of pest harmfulness.

An integrated system of nutrition of agricultural crops is achieved, above all, through:

• The introduction of new technologies on the basis of a study of the laws of nature and their optimal application, which have specific implications for the rotation and balance of nutritive elements and the restoration of soil fertility, particularly its biological activity and the productivity of agricultural ecosystems;

• Rational and high-economy crop rotation with the maximum inclusion of leguminous plants, and also agricultural crops with well-developed tap root systems which, in the process of vegetation, can draw biogenic elements from the lower strata to the upper soil layer;

• High-yield varieties;

• Optimal range of agro-technical methods;

• Soil-protective systems of agriculture (non-degrading chisel and disk tools);

• Use of mineral-containing ores (phosphorite and dolomite powder and so forth);

• Resource-saving techniques for the use of chemical methods (localized, conveyor and scattered application, processing of seeds by microelements, use of growth stimulants, inhibitors) which make it possible, while reducing the energy intensiveness of agricultural production, to ensure balanced nutrition for crops, thereby considerably increasing their yield;

The introduction of a comprehensive, integrated system of plant nutrition is making it possible to achieve an almost twofold increase in agricultural productivity compared with traditional methods of growing agricultural crops. At present scientific research institutions and the agro-chemical service of the Russian Federation are carrying out a huge operation of adapting and adjusting this system of nutrition of agricultural crops to local and regional conditions.

Watering equipment and irrigation techniques are being developed as scientific and technical progress is made in the following areas: resource conservation (reducing irrigation systems' use and consumption of metals, energy, water and capital, and lowering irrigation operating costs), increasing the capacity of irrigation canals; reducing water output flow intensity; improving watering quality by ensuring more uniform moisture levels; targeting irrigation for plant environment formation; combining various types of irrigation depending on the characteristics of the plants; and making multi-purpose use of watering facilities for the water-borne delivery of fertilizer, chemical soil ameliorants, pesticides and growth-promoting substances. Carrying out such measures helps to increase yield, protect the environment, raise labor productivity and reduce material and energy consumption in the watering process.

Scientific and planning organizations have drawn up a concept for making scientific and technical progress in mechanizing watering activities. It sets out the basic types of watering equipment during the transition to a market economy and during production in a mixed economy, and establishes technical requirements for machinery produced in series and for new equipment. For the first time, the line of machinery includes a set of energy-efficient machines and watering equipment for private plots.

The federal budget, budgets of members of the Russian Federation, resources of enterprises and extra-budgetary sources support agricultural activities.

There are bilateral and multilateral agricultural agreements (in the Commonwealth of Independent States - CIS framework).

In the context of international trade agreements, particularly the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (art. 20), a great deal of work was done on the estimates of domestic agricultural support measures, the rates of import customs duties, and export subsidies for agricultural and food products. Agreement was reached with the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Economy of the Russian Federation on the estimates concerning the level of domestic support and export subsidies.

In 1998 revised estimates were sent to the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Economy of the Russian Federation, taking into account the content of article 20 of the Agreement on Agriculture and the results of the seventh working meeting on accession by the Russian Federation to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Work is being done on justifying the proposals concerning the level of domestic support and export subsidies for agricultural raw materials and food.

* * *