Importance of Agriculture in the Russian Economy

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1. Does agriculture play an important role in the economic power of Russia today? Who owns the farmland and what impact does this have on overall agriculture activity? Explain.

From the World Fact book, only 10.8% of the labor force are in agriculture.

agriculture: 10.8%
industry: 29.1%
services: 60.1% (2005 est.) (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html#Econ

Agriculture in Russia -

Despite Russia's huge size and extraordinary natural resources, it has a shortage of agricultural land. Only about 8 percent of its territory is cultivated. Most of this farmland lies in the so-called fertile triangle. This region runs along the country's western border stretching from the Baltic to the Black seas; its two sides taper eastward to the southern Ural mountains, where it narrows to a strip about 400 km (about 250 mi) wide that extends across the southwestern fringes of Siberia. East of the Altay Mountains, agriculture is found only in isolated mountain basins along the southern edge of Siberia. Without human modification, areas outside the fertile triangle are unsuitable for crops. To the north, the growing season is too short without the aid of greenhouses.

To the south, the dry climate is an obstacle; Soviet planners tried to overcome this problem by building extensive irrigation works along the Kuban' and other southern rivers. The country's major grain crops are wheat, barley, oats, and rye. Other important crops are potatoes, sugar beets, and sunflower seeds.

Russia's attempts to reform the weak agriculture sector have been ineffective. State-owned farms and collective farms became a powerful lobby in the late Soviet period. They continued to press for massive subsidies after the Soviet breakup and resisted any significant restructuring of farm management. From 1991 to 1996 direct ...