Russia may increase corn production by 100 million tons due to land reclamation - Rusagro September 6, 2019 09:00

Russia can increase corn production by 100 million tons due to land reclamation in the Volga region alone, said Vadim Moshkovich, the main owner of the Rusagro group.

The demand for Russian products will be provided by a growing population and the development of a new industry - the production of vegetable protein for meat replacement. "If you take only the Volga region and restore the reclamation systems that were created in the Soviet Union - many do not work today, and add more land reclamation - easily, in our opinion, you can reclaim up to 10 million hectares. If you take the old figures - $ 2 thousand per hectare , (we’ll have to) spend billions.But at the same time, we can easily get an additional 100 million tons of corn with a cost price that no one can compete with. Today, in principle, we have a cost price at the level of Brazil, "said Moshkovich, speaking at the Eastern Economic fo mind.

"But if we can reclaim the Volga region and get world figures - 12-14 tons per hectare, then we can offer the cheapest vegetable protein in the world and through it the cheapest animal protein in the world and practically double the crop industry," he said.

In 2018, the corn crop in the Russian Federation amounted to 11.2 million tons, which is 15% less than in 2017. Last year, Rusagro harvested 172 thousand tons of corn (41% more than a year earlier) with a yield of 6.2 tons per hectare (an increase of 24%). The area under crops under maize increased by 14%, up to 28 thousand ha. According to the owner of Rusagro, demand for Russian crop products will be provided by increased consumption amid population growth.

In addition, a new industry has already appeared - the production of "vegetable meat" from soy, pea, and corn proteins.

“I also want to say that the world is changing - today, you know, vegetable meat substitutes have already appeared - this is today, not tomorrow. Animal protein will be replaced, there is already a lot of talk about the“ carbon footprint ”that forms cattle as a result of vital activity, it leads to global climatic changes. And vegetable protein is able to solve this problem and solve the problem of obesity, healthy nutrition, longevity, "said Moshkovich.

In general, agriculture remains one of the drivers of the Russian economy - "we have annual growth," he noted.

“We have become an export-oriented industry, we have the president’s order to move for export. Today we are one of the cheapest producers of protein, through this we can calmly conquer the whole world further,” Moshkovich said.

At the same time, two factors remain that impede the development of the Russian agricultural sector, he said. The first is the seeds that Russia imports, for some crops - 100%. In addition, imported seeds are not regionalized, not adapted to Russian pests, not ready for Russian soils. "We don’t have genetics in Russia at the moment. For example, we made a genetic company, we went around the whole academy of sciences and we understand that there are no modern studies that could keep up with the times. We are forced to use Western technology today," said the owner of Rusagro.

"The second restriction is for almost all of Russia - you know, we have many territories that are a zone of risky agriculture, for which moisture is the limiter," he said. The solution to this problem is the development of land reclamation.