On the eve of the spring sowing campaign, the availability of mineral fertilizers for agricultural producers is one of the priorities of Russian agriculture. Expanding the scope of its application, in particular, will help improve the condition of winter crops that suffered from unfavorable weather conditions last year and, in general, will have a significant impact on the formation of this year's crop.

As noted by the First Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Russia Dzhambulat Khatuov, at present the situation with the rising prices of mineral fertilizers is being resolved at all levels of government, including by the Government of the Russian Federation and the State Duma (Russian legislature). All appeals from regions and industrial unions on this issue are sent by the Ministry of Agriculture for consideration to the Federal Antitrust Service and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Russia. Thanks to the joint work of the Ministry with the concerned departments and the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers, the situation has already stabilized in the regions of the Central and Southern Federal Districts, although the problem of rising prices is still relevant. in the Northwest and Far Eastern Federal Districts. In this sense, the Ministry of Agriculture called on the representatives of the Federal Antitrust Service to speed up the terms of consideration of the resources of the regions.

So far, farmers have accumulated 1.4 million tons of mineral fertilizers, which is 245,000 tons more than on the same date last year. This volume is 45% of the total demand for 2021.

In addition, the meeting participants discussed the work on putting unused arable land into circulation. As of January 1, 2021, its area in Russia was 19.4 million hectares. Last year 1.11 million hectares were put into circulation, 0.04 million hectares more than in 2019. The regions of Volgograd, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Saratov and Penza are among the leaders in terms of the volume of this activity. The largest availability of arable land occurred in the Omsk, Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as in the republics of Bashkortostan and Kalmykia. Overall, by 2025, about 5.3 million hectares are expected to enter circulation. The expected yield increase due to the release of unused arable land will amount to 6.9 million tonnes for cereals and 1.4 million tonnes for oilseeds.