RUSSIA: COUNTRY REPORT TO THE FAO INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL CONFERENCE ON PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES (Leipzig,1996) Moscow, May 1995 RUSSIA country report 2 Note by FAO This Country Report has been prepared by the national authorities in the context of the preparatory process for the FAO International Technical Con- ference on Plant Genetic Resources, Leipzig, Germany, 17 23 June 1996. The Report is being made available by FAO as requested by the International Technical Conference. However, the report is solely the responsibility of the national authorities. The information in this report has not been verified by FAO, and the opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views or policy of FAO. The designations employed and the presentation of the material and maps in this document do not imply the expression of any option whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations con- cerning the legal status of any country, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. RUSSIA country report 3 Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTRY AND ITS AGRICULTURAL SECTOR 5 CHAPTER 2 ABORIGINAL PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES 13 CHAPTER 3 PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES ON THE NA- TIONAL LEVEL 18 3.1 EX SITU COLLECTIONS 20 3.2 DEPARTMENTS OF PLANT RESOURCES 23 CHAPTER 4 IN-COUNTRY USES OF PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES 26 CHAPTER 5 NATIONAL GOALS, POLICIES, PROGRAMMES AND LEGISLATION 28 5.1 NATIONAL PROGRAMMES 28 5.2 TRAINING 28 5.3 NATIONAL LEGISLATION 29 5.4 THE EXCHANGE OF ACCESSIONS IS CARRIED OUT IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES 30 CHAPTER 6 INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION 31 CHAPTER 7 NATIONAL NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES 33 CHAPTER 8 PROPOSALS FOR A GLOBAL PLAN OF ACTION 36 ANNEX 1 38 ANNEX 2 39 ANNEX 3 3.1 THE FAR EAST 40 3.2 WESTERN SIBERIA AND THE ALTAI 45 3.3 EASTERN SIBERIA 48 3.4 EUROPEAN PART OF RUSSIA 50 RUSSIA country report 4 3.5 NORTHERN CAUCASUS 53 ANNEX 4 GENE POOL OF FOREST WOODY SPECIES 55 4.1 THE RESULTS OF POPULATION AND GENETIC RESEARCHES OF WOODY SPECIES 56 4.2 THE STATE OF THE WORKS ON GENETIC FOREST FUND CONSERVATION 57 4.3 THE SYSTEM OF RESEARCH ORGANIZATION 58 4.4 REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 59 ANNEX 5 63 ANNEX 6 EXPERIMENT STATIONS 67 6.1 DOCUMENTATION 75 6.2 REGENERATION 76 ANNEX 7 79 ANNEX 8 83 ANNEX 9 92 ANNEX 10 98 ANNEX 11 100 RUSSIA country report 5 CHAPTER 1 Characteristics of the Country and its Agricultural Sector By January 1st, 1994, the Russian Federation occupied the area of 17,097.00 sq.km. Its population is 148.2 mln people with an average density amounting to 8.2 people per 1 sq. km (Annex 1). The territory of the Russian Federation incorporates extremely diverse natural environments. In the western part of the country vast plains prevail (East European and West Siberian plains di- vided by the Ural Mountains). In the East there are plateaus and mountain- ous areas of Southern and North Eastern Siberia and the Far East. In the South of the European part of Russia there are the chains of the Greater Cau- casus and the mountain of Elbrus. In Russia climate varies from the sea cli- mate in the extreme North West to the continental one in a range of climate zones from the Arctic belt to the Subtropical one. Average temperatures of January is negative (from 1°C to 50°C almost everywhere, except the Black Sea Coast in the Caucasus). Summer Average temperatures of July are within the scope from 1°C to 25°C. Annual precipitation level is from 150 mm to 2,000 mm. Permafrost is typi- cal for the soils in many areas of Siberia and the Far East. In the country's territory there are more than 200,000 lakes and an extensive network of great and minor rivers. Soil and vegetation zones are as follows (from north to south): Arctic desert, tundra, forest tundra, forest, forest steppe, steppe and semidesert. Altitudinal belts are typical for mountainous regions, especially for the Caucasus and Al- tai. 44% of the Russia's territory are covered by forests. Natural environments in many regions are unfavourable for agricultural production, being deficient of water and warmth. A considerable part of lands needs melioration. The country is conventionally subdivided into 12 economic regions: Northern, North Western, Central, Volga Vyatka, Central Black Soil, Middle Volga, Lower Volga, North Caucasian, Ural, West Siberian, East Siberian and Far Eastern regions (Annex 2). In spite of rich natural resources, the level of agricultural production in Russia has ever been lower that it could have been potentially due to a number of reasons. Nevertheless, agriculture has been playing a vitally important role in the national economy with its 25% of net production output, employment and capital investments. RUSSIA country report 6 Until the recent times this sector exhausted a considerable part of Russia's budget and hard currency resources, while consumers spend up to 65% of an- nual income to satisfy their demand for food products. In 1970's the growth rate of agricultural production began to show continuous decrease, falling down to negative figures in 1990's. In the nearest future no tangible changes of the situation towards improvement are expected. The yield of major crops has remained unchanged on the level of 10-30%. Gross agricultural produc- tion irrevocably continues to decline, having decreased by 22% on the na- tional level in general, but for instance in the Altai region this parameter has fallen down by 30%. One of the reasons of the reported decrease of the pro- duction rate in 1994 was a severe soil drought in the major areas of priority crop cultivation, i.e. cereal grain production: Krasnodar and Stavropol Terri- tories, Rostov, Volgograd, Saratov, Voronezh and other Provinces of the Central Black Soil area of Russia. In 1995, according to the draft estimates of some scientists of the Russian Agricultural Academy (RASKhN), about 2 mil- lion hectares of winter cereals will be damaged. This may result in the ex- pected loss of grain yield by no less than 4.5 or 5.0 mln tons. Rotting and snow mould may also damage crops in the fields. By now many farms have got no funds to buy fertilizers, fuel and chemicals for plant protec- tion. Relatively low level of agricultural production may be largely due to gen- eral worsening of the macroeconomic situation, absence of efficient incentives (resulting from distortion of the price formation structure in the chain "expenditures agricultural production output"), worsened terms of trading in agricultural products, breaches in trading and marketing procedures (caused by disruption of traditional market relations in major spheres of agricultural production between the states of the former USSR and the East European countries which previously were partners of socialist cooperation), disintegra- tion of the former common market and system of payments, reduction in fi- nancial resources (brought by a decrease in crediting for production purposes and cutdown of subsidiesearmarked to agricultural enterprises, and weak con- nections between agricultural research and its practical implementation. With this, such burning problems as agricultural producers are now facing in the sphere of improvement of management structures and agricultural tech- nologies cannot obviously be approached. One the reasons of the critical situation in national agriculture is the fact that scientific research activities in the sphere of agriculture have been steadily would up. The amount of 132 billion Rbl. funding from RASKhN approved for 1995 was cut down by the State Duma to 79 billion Rbl. By November 1, 1994, the RASKhN network embraced 228 scientific institutions, including 195 research institutes, 29 experimental stations, 47 breeding centres (39 of which were involved in plant breeding, and 8 in animal breeding), 4 biotech- nological centres and 4 scientific coordination centres. Among other reasons RUSSIA country report 7 there are an exceptionally low level of remuneration in the agricultural sector, severe problems in the social sphere in agricultural areas, and illogical system of land management relations. In addition, road construction in rural areas became 12 times lower than before. This should be considered with reference to the exchange rate of U.S. $ 1 = 5,000 Rbl. (for April 3, 1995). During the past four years (1990-1994) gross output of the agri-industrial complex in Russia became twice as low, while agricultural production declined by 24%. Consumption of meat per capita decreased by more than 21%, milk by 24%, eggs by 16%, fish and fishery products by 40%, sugar by 34%, vege- table oil by 31%, vegetables and horticultural crops by 20%, fruits and berries by 17%, etc. General nutrition level of the population was reduced in the av- erage from 3,380 kcal per day per capita in 1987-1989 to 2,552 kcal in 1993 (by 25%). Protein deficiency in consumable food products reached 25%, and vitamin deficiency 50-60%. Over 20% of population (34 mln people) are sys- tematically underfed. Historically Russian agriculture has always suffered from low productivity of crop fields and livestock farms, exceedingly high consumption of power and materials and low production rate. Agricultural engineering, servicing and processing industries have also been notably lagging behind the international standards, and this gap shows an unavoidable tendency to increase. However, it should be marked that more than 70% of the country's territory is situated in the zones of either extremely cold climate, or extremely arid environments. Bioclimatic potential of Russia's major agricultural areas is 2.4 3.2 times lower than in Western Europe and the United States.