Russia’s Penza Oblast interested in Belarus’ dairy farming practices
MOGILEV, 4 December (BelTA) – Russia’s Penza Oblast is interested in Belarus’ dairy farming practices, Deputy Head of the Penza Oblast Government Andrei Burlakov said as he met with Chairman of the Mogilev Oblast Executive Committee Vladimir Domanevsky on 4 December, BelTA has learned.
Penza Oblast decided to study Belarus’ dairy farming practices rather than the Western ones since the country achieved the most impressive results in this area during the times of the Soviet Union. “We tried to adopt US and Canadian technologies, use their high-yielding breeds of livestock, but in our climate their performance was much lower than we expected. The animals are affected by seemingly insignificant changes, which negatively influences productivity and economic performance. This is why we have decided to study Belarus’ practices of breeding, construction and maintenance of dairy farms and personnel training,” Andrei Burlakov explained.
For his part, Vladimir Domanevsky noted that Belarus’ Mogilev Oblast has considerable experience in the development of dairy farming. Some 170 farms have been built in the region over the past five years only. “We can establish mutually beneficial cooperation in this field, for example, in construction of farms, transfer of technologies and supplies of equipment for joint enterprises, which will further advance our cooperation,” Vladimir Domanevsky stressed.
He invited the Russian region to look for new avenues of cooperation and consider the possibility of importing Belarusian high-quality seeds and Bobruisk-made agricultural machinery. “We have good cooperation prospects in production of farm machines. For example, there is an idea to set up a joint venture with OAO Bobruiskagromash. The development of dairy farming should be considered comprehensively as much depends on the production and conservation of fodder,” Vladimir Domanevsky added.
He believes that Penza Oblast and Mogilev Oblast have points of contact and are interested in developing cooperation in machine building, manufacture of elevators, construction, science, education, and culture. “We need to prepare a plan of joint action and use all the opportunities to develop mutually beneficial cooperation, including to jointly produce a competitive product that will be exported to third countries,” Vladimir Domanevsky emphasized.
Andrei Burlakov has plans to visit a number of enterprises of Mogilev Oblast and the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy on 4 December.