The President instructed the Government of the Russian Federation to allocate at least 153 billion rubles from the federal budget in additional funding to increase subsidies for Russian lending institutions and VEB.RF state development corporation to enable them to offset the shortfall in revenue from subsidised loans to agricultural producers, organisations and sole traders involved in processing and selling agricultural produce. Another instruction deals with allocating at least 5 billion rubles in additional funding from the federal budget to support seed-growing and genetic selection centres.
Instructions to the Government also include extending quantitative restrictions on exports of specific fertilizer varieties from the Russian Federation to countries which are not members of the Eurasian Economic Union until August 31, 2022.
In addition, the instructions to the Government include ensuring that agricultural producers have enough mineral fertilizer; maintaining stable wholesale prices for agricultural produce, raw materials and food; increasing the production of agricultural machinery and equipment; building fishing boats and their main components while ensuring the highest possible domestic manufacturing content in this sector.
In particular, instructions provide for cancelling import duties on specific types of agricultural equipment if Russia does not make similar devices; promoting closer ties between agricultural producers and research institutions; allocating an additional 7 billion rubles from the federal budget in 2022 for research, development, design and technology development for substituting imported equipment used by the fishing fleet.
Together with the State Council Commission on Agriculture, the Government has been instructed to amend the Agriculture and Fishing Development Strategy until 2030 to set forth a growth rate of at least 3 percent for agricultural output; set annual performance indicators for the import substitution of critical agricultural products as well as products used by the agriculture industry and fisheries; state support measures for these sectors, including to promote new export opportunities for finished products and increasing funding for the state programme to rehabilitate and reclaim farm land.
Along with the Bank of Russia, the Government of the Russian Federation has been instructed to draft proposals on defining risk insurance mechanisms for shipping of agricultural products, raw materials and food, as well as mineral fertilizer by sea, including in the Black Sea, against the backdrop of the sanctions.