The department plans to expand the program that helps farmers purchase agricultural equipment.
The technology problem today is one of the most serious for Russian farmers.
According to experts, almost half of the entire fleet, or even more, requires urgent replacement.
Adding to the problem is that due to the departure of Western brands from Russia, owners of many types of equipment have problems with repair and maintenance, and domestic enterprises do not yet provide a sufficient supply.
Finally, even if equipment is available on the market, enterprises do not always have enough funds to purchase it.
To solve the latter problem, the Ministry of Agriculture is using a subsidy program for the purchase of equipment.
There are currently plans to expand this program.
So far, it only works in the case of purchases of tractor equipment; now it is expected to also include the purchase of forage harvesting equipment and combines. It is planned that thanks to this, many companies will be able to update their technical fleet.
All this should be possible thanks to the expansion of the program, which today is known as the 1432 Program.
Currently, changes to the program are being discussed by the relevant departments: the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
“We will look for solutions that minimize the risks of rising production costs.
We see that any additional penny in the cost price is now prohibitive for the further development of one or another area in agriculture,” noted Deputy Minister of Agriculture Andrei Razin.
Program 1432 is well known to Russian farmers, since it has been operating since 2013. The point is to subsidize Russian equipment manufacturers who sell their products to farmers at discounts.
In this way, the government supports producers of both food and agricultural machinery, which is no less important, since Russia now needs to actively increase its production.
In 2023, about 2 billion rubles were allocated for the program. But this amount was not enough, so in the middle of the year the Ministry of Industry and Trade added 3.2 billion rubles.
Then the program was additionally financed by 2.8 billion.
The total volume of subsidies for the year amounted to 8 billion, which corresponds to the level of 2022.
It is currently planned that in this and the coming years, subsidies will be increased by another 6 billion rubles per year.
This should help Russian farmers significantly update their fleet of equipment and increase their productivity.
