Five farmers of Karelia will receive funds to develop their farms

Farmers will use grants ranging from 1.5 to 6 million rubles to create an apiary and grow garden strawberries, raspberries and lettuce. These are the results of the competitive selection for Agrostartup grants of the national project “Small and Medium Enterprises and Support for Individual Entrepreneurial Initiatives.”
Interviews with applicants for the Agrostartup grant took place at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Karelia.
Based on the results of evaluating projects for the creation and development of farms, the competition commission identified five winners. A grant for the creation of an apiary in the Kondopoga district will be received by Andrey Rogov, garden strawberries will be grown by Svetlana Vatanen (Lakhdenpokhsky district) and Alexander Sadukov (Kondopoga district), raspberries - by Ivan Protasov (Olonets district).
One of the winners, Mikhail Kholoshenko, will receive funds to grow lettuce on the territory of the Lososinnoye tract. For this purpose, it plans to build a specialized greenhouse complex using the latest efficient and environmentally friendly technologies for year-round cultivation of crops based on the flow hydroponics method. This method is based on the principle of growing plants with constant recirculation of the solution through gutters and pipes.
Using this technology, Mikhail’s son Nikita Kholoshenko and his wife are already growing lettuce. Farmers also took advantage of government support - in 2019 they received an Agrostartup grant for the construction and provision of greenhouses with the necessary equipment for growing lettuce. Thanks to well-designed lighting, heating and circulation of mineral solution to nourish plants, greenhouses allow the continuous cultivation of about 30 tons of green crops per year.
Mikhail also plans to produce highly processed products from lettuce - a vitamin concentrate that will be good for HEALTH.
The HEAD of Karelia, Artur Parfenchikov, appreciated the farmers’ plans for developing their farms.
“I’m glad that such interesting projects are supported. Good luck in implementing your plan,” the head of the region noted on his page on the social network.