MPs from Parliamentary Assembly to discuss Union State agriculture programmes on October 18th

Representatives from the Union State Standing Committee, the Russian Agriculture Ministry, the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Ministry of Higher Education and Science take part in the meeting.

Participants intend to discuss development progress for the Union State programmes: Smart Technologies and Robotic Machinery for Industrial Gardening (Gardening-SG) and Smart Technologies and Automated Equipment for Dairy Farming (Smart Farm-SG). The issue of proposed genetics and breeding centre for egg-laying chickens will also be reviewed.

“These programmes are indeed extremely important. We have to review them thoroughly and put them into practice,” said Ivan Markevich, Сhairman of the Union State Commission on Agrarian Issues, Сhairman of the House of Representatives Standing Commission on Agriculture. “As for gardening specifically, apples are fruits that are the healthiest for both children and adults. While we in Belarus satisfy our national demand for apples fully, the Russian market is huge and open. So we have to use modern technologies, robotics first of all. We have to do everything in our power to make apple gardening cheaper. We have to automate. Statistics say up to 70% of apple production today is manual labour. That is costly. If we decide to introduce these measures, it will be possible to cut, I believe, as much as 45% of apple growing and production cost. As for animal husbandry, once again, we are approaching smart farms there. With a solid science-based approach, these projects can be implemented to good effect,” he added.

“As for legal harmonisation issues, we also have to take it seriously, so we have no barriers for our farming development and no obstacles for our products at foreign markets,” concluded the MP.