Water relief: Crimea is preparing to increase rice crops
Crimean rice farms will purchase seed material in the Krasnodar Territory in order to restore crops in the areas before the closure of the North Crimean Canal. In the future, farmers hope to resume economic ties with rice growers in the Kherson region, since the local seeds gave Crimean rice unique taste.
This was stated by the Acting Minister of Agriculture of Crimea Alime Zaredinova, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Eighty thousand tons of rice were harvested in Crimea every year, and Crimean rice tastes different. Already 80 enterprises have firmly declared that they will fill rice paddies for crops, albeit in small areas,” Zaredinova said.
Rice farms have maintained the infrastructure and, as soon as water appears on the checks, fish fry will be released there, as they did before 2014. The farmers of the Krasnoperekopsk, Dzhankoy, and Nizhnegorsk districts are counting on the restoration of fish farming. This year they will sow more open-ground vegetables - cabbage, beets, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers.
“We hope that we will return gardening to previous indicators, especially since farms use water sparingly thanks to the drip irrigation system,” the head of the Ministry of Agriculture emphasized.
Over the 8 years of being under sanctions and with limited water resources, Crimean farmers have increased production, built storage facilities and elevators. The amount of government injections into the industry amounted to about 9 billion rubles.
“The groundwork is good, and if we were able to achieve high results in such conditions, then with the availability of water the results will be even better,” says Zaredinova.
Earlier, the head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, said that 700 million cubic meters of water would be withdrawn from the North Crimean Canal for the needs of agricultural enterprises annually. The canal system runs from north to east along fields and gardens, and is designed to irrigate 400 thousand hectares.
During the time that Crimea was part of Ukraine, this figure dropped to 160 thousand hectares - pipes were simply dug up and sold for scrap. The water blockade organized by the Ukrainian authorities reduced irrigated areas to 17 thousand hectares. Every year their number increased, but not much, and only due to the construction of storage ponds.
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