IAMO researcher as foreign expert in public hearing of Russian State Duma’s Agricultural Committee

14 November 2019 - The Agriculture Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation held a public hearing on 22 October 2019 on “Legal Aspects of small farm development”.

The hearing was led by Vladimir Kashin, chairman of the Agriculture Committee. In addition to State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ivan Lebedev, representatives of the political groups, the regional administration, farmers' associations and academia contributed statements. Within Russian agriculture, comparatively small farms play a dominant role in sectors such as fruit, vegetables or potatoes. However, it is often complained that large farms in particular benefit from agricultural policy instruments.

The promotion of small farms within the framework of EU’s Common Agricultural Policy was presented by IAMO director Thomas Herzfeld during the event. The experiences from abroad, in this case the EU, should support the information base for the development of a specific political strategy. In addition to the description of the current political instruments, Thomas Herzfeld highlighted possible reasons for a possible discrimination against small farms. He emphasised that policies should address the elimination of such deprivation. In addition, as part of a holistic view of agricultural households, non-agricultural income sources are of particular importance. Therefore, any political strategy supporting small farms should be embedded in a comprehensive rural development policy. Participation in the hearing was made possible by the German-Russian Agricultural Policy Dialogue.