Tiraspol, July 4. / Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The development of the melioration system is one of the conditions for the successful operation of the entire agro-industrial complex. Prime Minister Alexander Rozenberg announced this at his press conference today.
“The main goal of the state in terms of the development of the agro-industrial complex is to achieve maximum efficiency per unit area of agricultural land. All the measures that the state is taking are aimed at ensuring that each hectare of land gives the maximum yield,” he said.
And this is possible under certain conditions. And the first is the maximum irrigation coverage of all agricultural lands. Moreover, droughts, which used to be quite rare, are increasingly becoming our daily routine.
“The state has been talking about the fact that climatic conditions are changing for the past 15 years, and these predictions, unfortunately, come true. We no longer have a drought every 5 years, we have it every year. It is either autumn, or summer, or spring, or winter, when there is neither snow nor rain,” Alexander Rozenberg said.
The state is making its contribution. There is a program for the development of the meliorative complex in the republic. Systematic work is underway to repair pumping stations, issue preferential loans to farmers for the purchase of irrigation equipment, etc. At the moment, the volume of irrigated areas is a little more than 32,000 hectares. The minimum plan is to double that figure. And then the republic will just be able to return to the indicators of the Soviet time.
“And there are opportunities for thit. These are the lands that were actually irrigated. And according to the plan, we have, let's say, somewhere in the project. We had land reclamation up to the border with Ukraine according to the Soviet project. It provided for irrigation of 90,000 hectares. Today we are talking about restoring at least what was mastered at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is about 60 thousand hectares. This is a normal number. Imagine 60 thousand hectares out of 240 thousand hectares. This 25% of our land will be provided with a stable yield,” the head of Government outlined the goals.
But melioration is only one aspect. To get a good final result, you need to pull up a number of other areas. These are quality seeds. If local breeders have good results for vegetables, then Pridnestrovie imports planting material and uses foreign hybrids for grains and a number of other crops. In terms of plant protection products, we are generally 100% dependent on imports.
And in general, approaches to production in the agro-industrial complex have changed today.
“In general, we need to switch to other agricultural production technologies that are adapted to natural changes, and we often still continue to work in the old-fashioned way. This is unacceptable in the current climatic conditions; it does not work... And look, there is still a problem. If we don’t change technologies, don’t switch to organic farming, don’t keep humus in the soil, then we will be completely dependent on fertilizers, which we also don’t produce in the republic,” the Prime Minister believes.
Pridnestrovie has small areas. The Republic cannot position itself in the market as a supplier of large amount of production. Therefore, it is more rational to focus on a quality, and, as a result, more expensive product.
“We must change technologies as much as possible so that we grow products with high margins here on our small areas. And these are eco-products. Let them be few, but they must be expensive. This is what we should strive for in our agriculture. Grow part of it for ourself, and occupy the rest of the area with those crops that have a high margin. These are high demand products. And to the maximum to be engaged in the processing of what we grow,” Alexander Rozenberg summed up.
