The State Council talked about measures to combat desertification

The fight against soil degradation and desertification should be consolidated at the federal level within the framework of the national project "Technological food security". Vladimir Vladimirov, Chairman of the State Council of the Russian Federation Commission on Agriculture and Governor of the Stavropol Territory, told Izvestia about this on December 23.

According to him, this will consolidate the efforts of the state, agribusiness and the scientific community and spread effective land restoration practices to key agricultural regions of the country.

"We are talking about a federal task: measures to combat desertification and land degradation should work in all southern and arid territories of Russia, where a significant part of the harvest is formed," Vladimirov stressed.

According to the expert, the key tools should be the development of land reclamation, restoration and creation of forest belts, protection of soils from blowout and depletion, as well as the introduction of more sustainable agricultural technologies.

"The mechanisms and tools already exist, the issue is scaling and financial saturation: with systemic support, we can get a real effect in most regions of risky farming," he said.

Vladimirov noted that the return of degraded lands to agricultural use is not only an economic, but also a strategic issue of sustainability of territories.

"By supporting agricultural producers and preserving jobs, we are simultaneously strengthening food security and building a foundation for the future in a changing climate. It is necessary to work with the land carefully and over a long distance," the chairman of the State Council Commission summed up.

Vladimirov also said that the implementation of measures to combat desertification would make it possible to return a fifth of the degraded lands to agricultural use. Read more about this initiative in the Izvestia article:

Sandy onslaught: they want to return a fifth of the "dead" lands to agricultural turnover

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