OREANDA-NEWS. August 31, 2010.  President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko considers it necessary to set up private agricultural holding companies in Belarus in order to develop the farming. The president made the statement when visiting a private farm of Mikhail Shrub in Zhitkovichi District.

The State will continue to support the farms like that of Mikhail Shrub. The President also suggested that Mikhail Shrub should create an agricultural holding company. He will be in charge of personnel issues and efficiency of the company. The State, in turn, will provide the support to the organization within a three-year period.

For the development of farms, the State is going to allocate land plots, which, due to different reasons, are used inefficiently in large kolkhozes and kolkhozes. There are especially many of such “land plots” in Vitebsk Oblast. The President proposed to give these land plots into private ownership. “Let them use the land. They may cultivate any crops they want,” the president said, noting that several people have already expressed the desire to get into this business.

The head of state believes that in this way the problem of so-called mismanaged farms will be solved and the personnel management will be improved.

Addressing Mikhail Shrub, Alexander Lukashenko said that he is ready to take the process of creating agro-holding companies under personal control. “I think that by establishing private holding companies we will manage to cultivate such farmers as Mikhail Shrub. They will learn from you, and I think there will emerge about 100 to 200 farmers who will follow in your footsteps,” Alexander Lukashenko said when addressing the farmer.

At the same time the President noted that no artificial enlargements of agricultural enterprises will be allowed. "Everything we will do will be based on economic rationale,” he said.

According to the head of state, it is necessary to get maximum from small land plots, and there are a lot of such areas in the country. By bringing them into a holding company, we will be able to make a so-called maneuver, i.e. to produce both crop and animal products within one company.

Addressing Agriculture and Food Minister Mikhail Rusyi, the head of state said: “This should not be a one-time deal. It should be done in every part of the country”.

Mikhail Shrub’s farm was set up in 1993, with only a 32-hectare area then. In February 2003 a loss-making kolkhoz Way to Communism (Zhitkovichi District) was incorporated into the farm. Today the farmland covers 1,862 hectares, including 804 hectares of arable land. The farm specializes in the production of vegetables and potato, and operates a pork production plant. In H1 2010 the profitability made up 26.1%. The average wage is over Br1 million. Mikhail Shrub’s farm has numerously won the national entrepreneurship contest in the nomination, The Best Farm.

Today more than half of the farm’s produce is sold to Russia, Mikhail Shrub told the president.

The farm has also been developing agro-tourism. The farm has already welcomed tourists from France, the United States, Canada, China, Great Britain, and Russia.