Vegetable growing is developing in Dagestan

Dagestan vegetable growers have a hot time these days. This year, more than 41,000 hectares will be allocated for open ground vegetables, which is 18.5% of the total area of ​​spring sowing planned for this year in the Republic of Dagestan.
On February 23, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan Sharip Sharipov visited the Derbent region to study the course of vegetable crops sowing. Accompanied by the HEAD of the Department of Agriculture of the Derbent region, Yusif Gereykhanov, and the head of the Department of Agriculture of the Gumbetovsky district, Magomed Abdulkhalimov, he visited a number of settlements in this municipality.
In the Derbent region this year it is planned to plant open ground vegetables on an area of ​​6650 hectares. Vegetable growers took to the fields in many villages. Current projects in vegetable growing are being implemented in the villages of Chinar and Velikent.
In the village of Chinar, a large investment project is being implemented on an area of ​​about 100 hectares. According to the curator of the project, Magomedsaid Gamzatov, it is planned to plant peppers of different varieties on 40 hectares, about 30 hectares will be allocated for growing tomatoes, and about 20 hectares for Chinese cabbage. We have our own greenhouses, which complete the cultivation of seedlings in the required volume. Mineral fertilizers have been purchased, the necessary equipment is available. Currently, the last stage of preparing the soil for planting seedlings of vegetable crops is underway. There are plans to expand plantings, negotiations are underway to increase the area assigned to the investment project. The investor confirms the seriousness of his intentions by the work on the arrangement of fixed lands, in particular, the reclamation network has been ennobled.
In the village of Velikent, vegetable grower Urazai Murtazaliev is testing a new technology for Dagestan on an area of ​​4 hectares, which allows you to get extra early vegetables. The planting of tomato seedlings is being completed today. To protect plants from possible frosts, three layers of film are used, a kind of thermos is created from films stretched on supports placed at different heights. This innovative technique provides an opportunity to obtain early vegetables in the open field.
Commenting on what he saw, the First Deputy Minister noted that the leading producers of open ground vegetables are Levashinsky (about 7 thousand hectares), Derbent (more than 6.6 thousand hectares), Khasavyurtovsky (4.5 thousand hectares), Kizlyarsky (3.5 thousand ha) and Magaramkent (3 thousand ha) districts.
The urgency of expanding the area under open ground vegetable crops is due to the increased demand for domestic products. In this regard, Dagestan is actively involved in the federal project launched this year to stimulate the production of open ground vegetables and potatoes. Within the framework of this project, state support is expected at the federal level in three new areas. This is the creation and modernization of storage facilities by offsetting part of the direct costs incurred for the construction, purchase of equipment and reconstruction of storage capacities. Vegetable growers and potato growers will also be able to receive reimbursement for the cost of purchased elite seeds. A measure of support has also been determined for a ton of manufactured products, which commercial farms can count on. The calculation of the rate will be carried out per hectare of crops or per ton of produced products. Currently, the amount of funding is being determined at the federal level, and the process of developing the relevant regulatory documents is at the final stage.
“Today, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan makes a special emphasis on increasing the production of vegetables in the commodity sector (agricultural organizations and peasant farms). We set the task of increasing the planting of open ground vegetables this year by at least 20% compared to last year. It is planned to increase funding for the so-called "unrelated support for crop production", which, coupled with new forms of state support, is a good incentive to attract investment. We carry out information and consulting work with vegetable growers, identify potential investors, the ministry is also ready to assist in the provision of land, resolving other emerging issues,” said Sharip Sharipov.
At the end of the conversation, he stressed that favorable natural and climatic conditions provide Dagestan with unique competitive advantages in terms of supplies of early and ultra-early open ground vegetables. At a time when in most other regions of our country agrarians are just entering the fields, Dagestan vegetable growers are already laying the harvest in order to supply high-demand quality products to the tables of domestic consumers in May. According to Sharip Sharipov, the republic has a huge unrealized potential in vegetable growing and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan is taking measures to fully use it and increase the production of high-quality vegetables.