Tkachev appointed new Agriculture Minister of Russia

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has appointed Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fyodorov as the presidential aide in charge of development of the agricultural sector. The governor of Krasnodar Territory, Alexander Tkachev, will replace Fyodorov as the new Agriculture Minister.

"I would like to invite you to transfer into the administration as an aide, and together with your future replacement, your colleague who today is the governor of Krasnodar Territory, whom you know very well, to organize your work in tandem," TASS cited Putin. It is a big job, and we need to consolidate the efforts of the government, the presidential administration and regions to ensure that the funds the state plans to allocate for development of the (agricultural) sector are spent as efficiently as possible," he said.

Putin praised Fedorov for his accomplishments as the agriculture minister and also gave him inspiration in his future position.

"You have held the position of agriculture minister for three years already, you've done much in developing this area, and over the last few months you have actively been involved in preparing plans for developing today’s functions in agriculture," he noted.

A research fellow at the center for agrarian and food policy at RANEPA, Vasily Uzun, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the Ministry of Agriculture has repeatedly been headed by non-agrarians."It is a tradition from the Soviet era - mostly representatives from Kuban and Stavropol become ministers. And recently it's been managers, but not profile agrarians. Tkachev is a professional agrarian. And he can manage all the challenges he will face," the expert said."As for the focus on import substitution, there was no serious, scientific analysis on how to move. We are now trying to analyze what the strategy should be in the future. Still, there are reasons to believe that it is not so clear: when we speak of import substitution, we talk about the need to increase the production of expensive, previously imported things," Uzun said."Everything should be done slowly, when the moment comes. If we made some innovations, new investments, if our goods become cheaper than the world market's products. This is the moment when you need to substitute products," he noted."We saturate the market with our products: poultry, pork. Of course, there is import substitution. But we need to think about whether we should do it. Maybe we shouldn't replace, but continue to import meat, raw materials and export finished products? Because we must have access to world markets. Many countries combine this work - so we can do it too," Vasili Uzun concluded.

 

A research fellow at the center for agrarian and food policy at RANEPA, Vasily Uzun, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the Ministry of Agriculture has repeatedly been headed by non-agrarians.

"It is a tradition from the Soviet era - mostly representatives from Kuban and Stavropol become ministers. And recently it's been managers, but not profile agrarians. Tkachev is a professional agrarian. And he can manage all the challenges he will face," the expert said.

"As for the focus on import substitution, there was no serious, scientific analysis on how to move. We are now trying to analyze what the strategy should be in the future. Still, there are reasons to believe that it is not so clear: when we speak of import substitution, we talk about the need to increase the production of expensive, previously imported things," Uzun said.

"Everything should be done slowly, when the moment comes. If we made some innovations, new investments, if our goods become cheaper than the world market's products. This is the moment when you need to substitute products," he noted.

"We saturate the market with our products: poultry, pork. Of course, there is import substitution. But we need to think about whether we should do it. Maybe we shouldn't replace, but continue to import meat, raw materials and export finished products? Because we must have access to world markets. Many countries combine this work - so we can do it too," Vasili Uzun concluded.