Agricultural enterprises of the Novosibirsk region may completely abandon animal husbandry

- On March 1, the law on livestock by-products came into force. This is a major innovation for agricultural producers. Provided that they are used in compliance with legal requirements, by-products are not recognized as waste, and the owner is exempted from obtaining a license for the storage of these wastes and paying for the negative impact on the environment. This fee is high and unbearable for most farms,” Nadezhda Nikulina, HEAD of the department for internal veterinary supervision and laboratory control of the territorial administration of the ROSSELKHOZNADZOR, said at a meeting of the agrarian committee of the regional parliament .

According to the department, in 2021, 47 million tons of agricultural waste were generated in the region, of which 97.5% were manure and its varieties.

According to Nikulina, agricultural enterprises themselves must provide Rosselkhoznadzor with information on volumes, date of formation, use of livestock by-products, their transfer to third parties, etc. In 2023, notifications are due by May 1st. To date, the department has received only 12 notifications from 6 business entities.

- There is still time until May 1, but we have to admit that most agricultural producers are not ready to meet the new requirements. Moreover, if at least one of the 6 requirements is violated (storage and processing at specialized sites, use of products that do not meet regulatory requirements, storage and processing together with household waste, etc.), then companies and responsible persons will be brought to administrative responsibility, and by-products are recognized as waste with a fee for the negative impact, says Nikulina. “So far we are issuing warnings, but in the spring session the State Duma plans to adopt changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses: 30-40 thousand rubles will be a fine for officials, 50-60 thousand - for individual entrepreneurs, from 250 to 350, as well as suspension of activities up to 90 days - for legal entities.

Alexander Baev, head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Sanitary Supervision for the Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions, added that livestock by-products are formed at enterprises that keep cattle, poultry and breed pigs. In the pig breeding segment, 90% of by-products are produced at one enterprise - the Kudryashovsky Pig Complex, in poultry farming - at 9 main farms, in the region there are several large and hundreds of small agricultural enterprises for cattle.

— 2022 showed that even large agricultural enterprises do not understand everything with lacunae, areas for storing livestock products. Only Novobaryshevskaya Poultry Farm has a manure processing line. There are several sites for overexposure and storage of litter at the Novosibirsk Poultry Farm, but only in the summer. Gaps were built near the Irmen breeding farm, for which the farm spent 250 million rubles in 2020. Other agricultural enterprises, especially small ones, as a rule, have nothing,” Alexander Baev emphasized. - That is, it is already clear that 90% of the region's livestock farms will not be able to fulfill the requirements of the law. For now, there is a moratorium on inspections, but if there are complaints, we will be obliged to inspect agricultural enterprises, and they will find themselves in an extremely difficult situation. One of the business entities in the Vengerovsky district told me bluntly: in order to build a site for livestock products, he would have to cut the entire herd. In our opinion, measures to support agricultural producers are needed in order for the law to really work. Otherwise, farms will constantly receive fines, and there will be trouble.

According to Nadezhda Nikulina, now a livestock farm with a livestock of 1,000 heads will be required to pay 5-6 million rubles for violating the law. From September 1, after the entry into force of a new decree of the government of the Russian Federation, the payment will increase to 73 million rubles - as for waste.

Andrey Shindelov, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Novosibirsk Region, explained that now the department is working on measures to support enterprises in the livestock sector. Until May 18, information is collected on the need for the creation of sites for the storage of livestock by-products. The ministry plans to develop standard versions of design estimates for such facilities so that farmers can save on design and estimate documentation. The project and expertise cost an average of 150-300 thousand rubles. The ministry also plans to work out with each enterprise the designation of the site where the facility will be located so that it can be transferred to the appropriate status.

“If everything goes perfectly, we will quickly prepare standard designs, but the problem is that now there is a big load on the construction industry, which may not have time to complete all the concrete work. In our opinion, it is necessary to introduce a temporary moratorium on the implementation of the requirements of the law for 2-2.5 years, - Andrey Shindelov said. “According to our estimates, enterprises that have from 10 to 300 heads of livestock simply will not withstand the requirements of the law. In the conditions of Novosibirsk, the construction of a concrete site requires 200-300 cubic meters of concrete, which costs from 4 thousand rubles per cubic meter. In the Zdvinsky district - from 11 thousand rubles per cubic meter. This is without taking into account reinforcement, etc.

Roman Yakovlev, deputy chairman of the committee, noted that so far the law does not apply to personal subsidiary plots, but in the future it will most likely be expanded, and this will lead to a reduction in livestock and poultry in private farmsteads. As for the farmers, they will also either start slaughtering livestock or raise prices for their products. According to him, in order to avoid this, it is necessary to develop proposals to support agricultural enterprises and go with them to the State Duma and the government of the Russian Federation.

Deputy of the Legislative Assembly, General DIRECTOR of LLC Novosibirsk Food Corporation Alexander Teplyakov said that no country in the world now has such a strict law on the handling of animal by-products as in RUSSIA.

— We are now more “green” than farmers in Germany. This is a mockery of the industry. In the Altai Territory, they already predict a reduction in the number of cattle by 30,000 cows. In the Omsk region - by 35 thousand. If we fulfill all the requirements of the law, then in the end we will see the depopulation of our territories, Teplyakov is sure. “We need to ask for a moratorium and get ready to work in the new conditions. It is necessary to involve all colleagues - from Omsk, Altai, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, because the implementation of this law in Siberia will mean a reduction in the rural population. And if the village becomes depopulated, then there will be no one to go to the polls. They are mostly voted by rural residents.

As a result, the deputies voted to bring the issue to the session of the regional parliament in order to adopt an appeal to the Ministry of Agriculture and the government of the Russian Federation, as well as to colleagues from other regions and deputies of the State Duma.