Crisis in Dagestani farming

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently expressed his concern about the low rates of economic development in the North Caucasus to his Plenipotentiary Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District,

Alexander Khloponin. And Dagestan’s backwardness can easily be seen simply through a window of the regular bus on the ‘Makhachkala- Sochi’ route. One could have the impression of having crossed the Russian state border when one enters Dagestan. In neighbouring districts all the arable lands are cultivated, while most Dagestani fields are neglected. No other region of the NCFD has so many Japanese and German jeeps or irregular housing construction – signs of a high level of corruption.

The bureaucrats are counting on federal donations and are not developing any other financial projects. There is a subsidiary of “Rosselkhoz Bank”, providing credits for farm development in Dagestan as well as other regions of the NCFD, but its credit problems are not working there. The farming machine fleet is irrevocably obsolete and inefficient, so farming is done mostly by manual labor, while governmental measures at improving the situation do not work.

It is ironic that the credit fund of “Rosselkhoz Bank’s” subsidiary in Dagestan has been increased to 12 billion rubles, but these credits are not used to buy farming machinery, and that makes the farming sector of the republic unable to compete on the market. However, some officials are more optimistic about the situation, making bright prognoses.

Musa Musaev, Makhachkala, exclusively to VK