Tomsk Agricultural Cooperatives Receiving Additional State Support

The current and new measures of state support for agricultural cooperatives were discussed by the participants of the “Rural partnership as a development path” discussion, held within the framework of the VII Rural Assembly of the Tomsk Region.

According to Renata Bibarsova, Deputy Director of the Department of Rural Development of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, state support in the form of grants has been provided to cooperatives since 2012. In 2018, two hundred cooperatives (three from Tomsk Region) received over 3 billion rubles. “As farms are ready to develop and co-finance larger projects, the average grant size is increasing annually. The maximum amount of the grant is 70 million rubles now,” emphasized Renata Bibarsova.

Since 2019, within the framework of the federal project “Creating a supporting farmers system and developing rural cooperation” new measures of cooperation support have started to operate. Farms will be able to receive up to 3 million rubles for startups, farmers entering cooperation - up to 4 million rubles.

In addition to the grants, agricultural cooperatives will be able to take advantage of subsidies for reimbursement of up to 50% of the costs when purchasing animals, machines, equipment, mini-greenhouses, seedlings of perennial plants, fish planting and breeding material. 10 to 15% of the costs will be reimbursed for the purchase of agricultural products from members of the cooperative.

As Renata Bibarsova noted, the tasks for the development of agricultural cooperation in the regions are assigned to Competence Centers. They will provide consulting and methodological assistance to cooperatives and farmers working or planning to join the system of cooperation, as well as economic, legal, veterinarian and agronomic services.

The functions of the Competence Center for the development of agricultural cooperation in the Tomsk region will be executed by the Agrarian Center. In addition to the direct support of cooperatives, its specialists will analyze the activities of small and medium-sized businesses and make recommendations of the most effective to establish cooperatives within a certain territory.

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• April
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