In the Ivanovo region, 42 thousand hectares of abandoned land have been brought back into agricultural use.

In the Ivanovo Region, 42,000 hectares of unused land have been brought back into agricultural use, including 3,100 hectares this year.
This was announced by Sergei Bubnov, a member of the Ivanovo Region government and director of the regional Department of Agriculture and Food, during a working visit to the Ilyinsky District. On November 26, he visited the ProAgro agricultural enterprise, where he inspected the enterprise's potato and grain storage facilities and discussed the process of bringing fallow land back into cultivation with the enterprise's management.
To bring land back into cultivation, agricultural enterprises in the Ivanovo Region use subsidies from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture as part of the departmental program "Development of the Land Reclamation Complex of Russia." Enterprises receive 50% reimbursement of their costs. This year, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture approved all 20 applications from the Ivanovo Region for bringing land into cultivation, covering an area of ​​2,300 hectares. Thirteen projects have confirmed certificates of completion, and subsidies totaling 34.6 million rubles have been awarded for them. "We will announce a selection process for the remaining completed projects on December 1st and begin document verification," the head of the agricultural department noted.
The Ilyinsky District is a leader among municipal districts in terms of bringing fallow land back into cultivation; over the past eight years, 4,700 hectares have been brought into cultivation in the district. The Shuya (3,900 hectares), Kineshemsky (3,800 hectares), Lukhsky (4,000 hectares), Vichugsky (3,100 hectares), Gavrilovo-Posadsky (3,000 hectares), Palekhsky (2,600 hectares), and Ivanovsky (2,400 hectares) districts have also actively participated in the program for developing unused land. Sergei Bubnov emphasized that agricultural enterprises that have received state support for bringing land back into cultivation undertake to produce agricultural products on the newly brought into cultivation land
for three years after receiving the subsidy . Twenty-six new projects to bring 5,600 hectares of land into cultivation have been submitted to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture for the 2026 selection process under the departmental program "Development of the Land Reclamation Complex of Russia. " The ProAgro enterprise from the Ilyinsky District has been included in the Unified State Register of Organic Producers. The potatoes and grain it produces are environmentally friendly, produced without the use of pesticides or mineral fertilizers. Klara Prokhorycheva, General Director of ProAgro LLC, explained that the enterprise has been growing organic produce since 2021. The enterprise currently owns 1,200 hectares of agricultural land, more than half of which is fallow land. "We started with 50 hectares of land, and in 2025 , the area under cultivation increased to 474 hectares. To expand production, we are gradually reclaiming abandoned lands and are currently completing work to bring another 117 hectares into cultivation," she said.



ProAgro produces organic potatoes, peas , oats, spelt, millet, flax, buckwheat, beans, and lentils under the brand "There's a Place on Earth." In 2025, 832.2 tons of potatoes and 405 tons of grain were harvested. ProAgro also operates an apiary where organic honey is produced.
Some of its products are sold through national retail chains and specialized marketplaces. In the Ivanovo region, potatoes are supplied to RIAT stores.
The agricultural enterprise is currently constructing a grain receiving, cleaning, and drying facility, which is scheduled to be operational in 2026.