A modern village

Russian village 1991 — present

In the early 1990s, there were a lot of unresolved problems in the country’s agriculture. First of all, the newly-minted reformers saw the causes of all the troubles (from off-road to commercial service) in the collective farm system and sought to get rid of it. It should be noted that in Soviet times a lot was done for collective farmers: in cities, peasant Houses (later Collective Farmer Houses) were created to accommodate peasants who came on business, collective farm markets were created for the sale of agricultural products, schools, medical posts, and cultural centers operated in villages and villages.

On January 5, 1991, the law on agrarian reform was issued, allowing the creation of farms outside collective farms (but not introducing private ownership). The law aroused genuine interest and discussion. The central newspapers received letters "from the hinterland", written as if under a carbon copy: "We will not let anyone encroach on our holy collective farm system!". Local leaders responded: "We are often asked: give us land, we will work on it. But these are not peasants — they are summer residents!"

On January 14, 1992, the reorganization of collective farms and state farms began. The following ways were proposed: the division of the collective farm (state farm) into peasant farms and small enterprises, followed by their voluntary association into associations or cooperatives; reorganization of the farm or part of it into a production cooperative. On February 13, 1992, the congress of collective farmers in Moscow approved the approximate charter of the collective farm. The actual result of the reorganization was the distribution to rural residents of their "shares" - former collective farm property. In 1995, the number of farms reached 280.1 thousand, but in the early 2000s it has decreased to 261.7 thousand. But the vast majority of peasants remained in the composition of labor collectives, agricultural enterprises and associations (joint-stock companies, partnerships, cooperatives, collective farms, etc.), to which the bulk of the land shares of the peasantry were transferred on lease or use.

In the 1990s, 13 thousand out of 155 thousand villages in Russia disappeared, less than 50 people lived in 37 thousand settlements, and less than 10 people lived in 35 thousand. The area of crops from 1990 to 1995 decreased from 117 705 thousand hectares to 102 540 thousand hectares, and by the end of the 1990s — to 85 419 thousand hectares. The average annual grain harvest decreased from 104.3 million tons (1986−1990) at first to 87.9 million tons (1991−1995), and then to 65.5 million tons (1996−2000).

Stabilization and improvement of the situation in agriculture were outlined in the early 2000s. In 2005, the number of farms in Russia amounted to 257.4 thousand.

A number of new laws have been adopted. On December 9, 2001, the Land Code was adopted. On December 30, 2006, the "Law on the Development of Agriculture" was adopted. In 2010 The President of Russia signed the Doctrine on Food Security of the Russian Federation. In July 2012, the "State Program for the Development of agriculture and regulation of agricultural products, raw materials and food markets for 2013−2020" was approved.

Currently, one third of the Russian population (about 27%) or 37 million people live in rural areas, of which 8% are engaged in agriculture. There are many problems in the countryside that need to be solved so that people can live well and comfortably, this concerns health, education, culture, and housing issues. The village needs reliable communications, highways and engineering networks and, of course, new digital technologies.

Megafarms

One of the most effective areas of animal husbandry in the future should be the creation of megafarms in Russia. Similar complexes are already being built in our country. There are not dozens of cows in them, but hundreds and thousands. When creating such a complex, several tasks will have to be solved.

First, it will be necessary to increase the number of herds, carry out work on breeding, vaccination and treatment of animals. Such a huge herd needs to be provided with its own feed, and not transported from neighboring regions.

Secondly, it is necessary to build a megafarm itself for the maintenance of thousands of animals, which will consist of buildings for dairy cows, dry-standing groups, a maternity ward, and a calf house. The complex needs to be equipped with modern equipment for their comfortable keeping of animals, their reproduction, devices for drinking, milking, manure removal, equipment for cooling and storing milk. But that’s not all. The megafarm will need storage facilities for feed, silo-haylage trenches and administrative and household premises.

The personnel issue is also of considerable importance. The megafarm will need milkmaids, veterinarians, and workers.

And the last task will be the processing and sale of products.

Smart farms

This is a combined system: animal feeding robots, animal milking robots, feed storage warehouses, feed quality sensors, some leftovers, something that you can pre-program. Neural networks are often used there, which warn the farmer, for example, that you need to bring a lot of silage — and he understands that the next day you need to plan the delivery.

What is the "smart farm" system for? Modern agriculture is a business. In business, you need to make money, you need every animal to give the right amount of milk every day. It is necessary to eliminate stress in animals, to exclude temperature fluctuations in the premises, to exclude sudden changes in the feed recipe. We need constant high yields every day — then the business will be able to earn. If you work "the old—fashioned way" - everything is in manual mode, everything is on paper — then everything will be tightly tied to the human factor. A person can forget today, not remember tomorrow, and not notice the day after tomorrow. And then there will be no high yields. High yields occur when everything is synchronized, when there is a cohesive work of all mechanisms in one system — such a system is a "smart farm".

Digital equipment of farms

The economy must come to this, the economy must understand that it wants this. And before introducing new technologies, they must do some work on mistakes on their land, modernize certain equipment, and train personnel. And, starting from the staff, we are Russian people, we like to relax. There may be many assignments, initiatives from the top of a large farm, there may be a movement forward, but the mechanic himself must be ready to work for this. The main thing is to convey to them the idea that new technologies are not to monitor them and pull them. These are assistants for them, and with their help they will be able to work better and earn more. This is the most important thing to convey. Although not too often, such a picture is visible in farms: the management has implemented a "digital revolution" in the farm, purchased a huge amount of modern equipment, carried out preparatory activities — and "at the bottom" none of this works. They worked there the old-fashioned way, and they still work there, and the management does not see any steps forward — either in the economy or in the quality of processing operations. The main thing is to introduce the desire to work at the bottom, and people need to be prepared for this. No one gives them a "stick" — they are given only a "carrot": they will be able to work more efficiently, easier, they will not have to give a huge amount of strength and health to work. They will have enough energy and time for family life — a person will be able to finish work earlier, devote more time to his family.

Source:

Robotization in agriculture. The future of agricultural production / habr.com

Abandoned villages

Late spring is a time of grace for seekers. The grass has not yet risen, has not gained strength. The weeds did not stand up like a dense forest. And the scourge of our places — the encephalitic tick — is not yet brutal.

Without grass on the earth’s face, you can see a lot. Uncrowned ruts, pits, and potholes lie with scars. We are happy that our poverty is hidden by snow in winter and grass in summer.

Without grass, abandoned villages that died a long time ago and those that recently ceased to exist become visible. Many still mark "undead" ("uninhabited") on the map. Some still have houses, but mostly two or three poles and wild cherry or apple trees.

Villages are dying slowly. Like a widow soldier who did not wait for her husband from the war. Like lonely old people abandoned by children.

Abandoned houses without an owner do not stand for a long time. People will pull them apart for firewood, or the spring fall will destroy them. Both of these factors, human and natural, act equally disastrously. If something remains after a person, then the fire eats everything. As a result, only broken bricks and rusty iron will survive on the site of the dead village. Sooner or later, the grass will hide all this. But while there is no grass, much is available to the eye. There are "artifacts" of human activity lying on the ground: broken cast iron, broken pots, glass, boot soles, cans. And the monuments of our civilization are likely to be plastic bottles and polyethylene.

If the field is not plowed for a year or two, it will become overgrown with grass, dense weeds will arise. Then the shrub will pull up, followed by aspen and birch. The pine tree will sprout last. In twenty years, the ship’s forest will rise. Wandering through the forest, you can find several furnaces standing like the pyramids of the Maya Indians. Then you begin to realize that there was a village here. There was a road over there, there were houses, there were vegetable gardens…

You feel a strange feeling in the spring in abandoned villages, standing on the edge of a housing pit from a failed underground. Life is boiling around, intoxicating joy runs in waves, love turns your head… Villages at such a time lie like cemeteries, with a mute reproach to people. You feel as if the village itself is calling to you from the ground:

"Traveler! Stop and think! I was alive too… And people like you lived here: they worked, rested, loved, gave birth to children, laughed and cried… Where are they now? Many crumbled to dust… You'll leave someday too…"

At sunset, a miracle happens for a short moment. The earth gives away what is hidden in itself. Seekers can confirm that coins are best found at sunset. At this moment, the village comes alive. You can hear voices from the past: the sounds of an accordion on a former street, the creaking of a gate, conversations, songs, the lowing of cows. Nature sometimes does strange things at sunset…

In the territory of the Tobolsk district at the beginning of the twentieth century there were 316 villages, now there are less than a hundred of them. The general progressive movement of the village towards extinction, when the elderly die, and the youth get drunk from idleness and hopelessness, is simply called by officials — a "trend".

Panishev Evgeny