Скачать или смотреть RUSSIA: FARMERS FACE WORST HARVEST FOR 30 YEARS

(22 Aug 1995) Russian/Eng/Nat

Russia is facing its worst harvest in 30 years.

Agriculture Ministry officials warn grain imports are unavoidable, pushing up world prices even higher.

This year's shortfall is just a symptom of the deep crisis in Russia's farming sector which still coming to terms with the collapse of communism.

In Soviet times, the yearly process of gathering in the fruits of the nation's sprawling network of collective farms was a task detailed to students, the unemployed and communist volunteers.

The whole population was mobilised to fight what was officially titled The Battle for the Harvest.

Based near Lenin's birthplace of Ulyanovsk on the Volga river, this farm is one of thousands strewn over Russia which are yet to recover from their communist past while being straightjacketed by the monetary squeeze of the present.

In a community where the average wage barely tops 50 US dollars a month, sentiments are running high, and those who can get out have already left.

The sense of crisis is compounded by official predictions of Russia's worst harvest for 30 years.

Added to creeping dereliction, severe drought has destroyed three (m) million hectares of crops and will compel Russia to turn abroad to make up the shortfall.

Farm chairman Nikolai Dodoyev takes heart from the fact that the stand-off between subsidisers and reformers has a time limit, set by Russia's December general election.

SOUNDBITE: (In Russian)
"This policy which is crippling the peasants has to come to an end. Villagers will make themselves heard at the elections, and their voice may be decisive."
SUPER CAPTION: Nikolai Dodoyev - farm chairman

One Western expert in Moscow sees problems ahead if the government starts to subsidise the farmers.

SOUNDBITE:
"Even if it's 20 (m) million tons of grain, the Russian government has so much net international reserves, so many dollars, that they are more than capable of buying that grain form the West. The problem will come if the government starts to subsidise the farmers."
SUPER CAPTION: Roland Nash, London School of Economics, Moscow Centre.

Dodoyev is the first to admit that Russian farming is far from ready for privatisation.

SOUNDBITE: (In Russian)
"We had a system. You can't just throw it away, and say everybody's free now. So what. we're just not ready for privatisation."
SUPER CAPTION: Nikolai Dodoyev - farm chairman

The farm lobby can confidently expect promises of a large handout to capture their support.

It will see them through another sowing season, but as the farmers are the first to admit, it simply postpones a real victory in the Battle for the Harvest for another 12 months.

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