The importance of strong regional leadership in Russia: the Belgorod Miracle in agriculture

Abstract

Belgorod oblast is a highly successful region in Russia. The economic successes in Belgorod stem from the dynamic leadership is provided by Yevgeny Savchenko for the past 24 years. Savchenko supports agroholdings and industrial agriculture, while also adopting policies that foster the growth of small-forms of farming and organic farming. Savchenko’s agrarian policies have led to the so-called Belgorod Miracle. The Belgorod experience shows that despite a decline in gubernatorial power vis-à-vis the federal center, governors have vast powers within their regions. Personality and leadership characteristics are important variables that impact the performance of a region.

Keywords:

• Russia
• agriculture
• regional leadership
• Savchenko
• Belgorod oblast

Notes

1. The president was also given the power to dissolve elected regional assemblies.

2. Counter-veiling the erosion of gubernatorial powers was the 2014 reform of local government that permitted regional parliaments to eliminate the popular election of mayors of large cities, replacing them with city managers appointed by regional assemblies or a commission of regional and local deputies. In effect, governors and the ruling party (United Russia) determine the mayors of cities in their regions.

3. 3Basic biographical facts may be found at https://wwwsavchenkoru/info, click on box that says “biography” Accessed January 9, 2017; and https://perebezhchikru/person/savchenko-evgeniy--stepanovich Accessed January 9, 2017.

4. An instructor for the Central Committee is an official position in the hierarchy of the Communist Party bureaucratic structure, situated between the First Secretary of the region and the Head of the Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

5. Governors are ranked on a 100-point scale based upon five separate measurements that are weighted. The first measure uses qualitative and quantitative survey data and experts’ opinions regarding satisfaction with life in the region. The second measure uses data on income and expenditures for each region, drawn from the Rosstat publication Socioeconomic Situation of Russia. The third measure is based on the socioeconomic situation in each region, using gross regional production, gross regional production per capita, level of industrial production, and average wages. The fourth measure is based on survey data from residents in the region on economic conditions. The fifth measure uses qualitative and quantitative data collected from television, radio, the press, and the internet regarding the regional head. The data are from the Index of Media Effectiveness collected by the National Monitoring Service.

6. See “Rossiya prokormit” (2016) and “Evgeniy Savchenko: Rossiya mozhet” 2014.

7. Agroholdings typically consist of multiple hierarchical layers of subsidiary and other related companies that produce agricultural and non-agricultural products. Their headquarters are usually located in large metropolitan and regional centers. An agroholding is headed by one or two managers who provide centralized management and who develop the strategic plan, production policy, and who coordinate joint activities among agricultural enterprises in the agroholding (Epshtein 2008).

8. Land grabbing remains a problem in southern Russia to this day, shown by farmers’ protests over dispossession in Stavropol’ and Kuban in 2016. In January 2017 the regional government in Stavropol’ formed a commission to investigate land grabbing, and it began considering cases in February 2017 (Slipchenko 2017).

9. For example, Miratorg, Ostankino, Rus-Agro, Eco-Niva, and EFKO.

10. In Belgorod 69% of the total population participates in the labor force, including 70% of the urban population and 66% of the rural population.

11. The oblast program has several subprograms that mirror those contained in the federal program for development of agriculture. Regional subprograms include crop production, animal husbandry production and sales, development of the meat industry, support for small forms of farming, technological modernization and innovation, development of rural territories, agricultural land reclamation, and administration of the program.

12. Common types of businesses include the production and processing of milk, meat, and vegetables; the growing of mushrooms, berries, and flowers; fish breeding; and tourist and recreational services.

13. About $194 million (US) at 2015 exchange rates.

14. Interviews in Belgorod were conducted with workers, managers, and specialists in the agricultural sector during July 2013.

15. Russian livestock and poultry produce more than 200 million tons of organic waste per year, equivalent of covering up to 2 million hectares of arable land (Lyubovedskaya 2017).

16. The highlights of Savchenko’s anti-crisis program include the following.

(1) To increase regional food production to feed 10 million people with high quality food (the oblast’s population is 1.5 million) and to raise the value of regional food sales to R1 trillion annually (regional agricultural sales were valued at R470 billion in 2014).

(2) To support import substitution, the area used to grow vegetables in greenhouses is to increase by 300 hectares, by 50 hectares to grow flowers, and by 5,000 hectares to grow fruit.

(3) To develop and produce elite seed for soy, grain, corn, and sunflower.

(4) To organize “a civilized class of cooperatives” and to promote food production by them. Toward this goal, Savchenko calls for further development of the “Family farms of Belgorod” program through better cooperation between large and small farms and for the creation of 10,000 independent entrepreneurs in the countryside. He asks agroholdings to “find” R100 million per rayon to support small producers.

(5) To increase the production of milk, a task that he says is “exceptionally important” because Russia has an annual deficit of 5–7 million tons of milk which must be imported. Much of Russia’s milk deficit comes from Belarus, but the two countries have had contentious trading relations over the quality of Belarussian milk. To support the goal of increased milk production, it is necessary to support the center for embryos and insemination to breed pedigree cows, opened by Agro-Belogor’ye; to milk dairy cows a minimum of five to seven years instead of the present two years; and to increase milk production on small farms and even household gardens.

(6) To increase all eligible land usage to 100% for multi-year grasses.

(7) To strengthen the agricultural machine-building sector, particularly in the poultry, pork, feed, and meat processing industries.

(8) To increase the sale of food produced in Belgorod through the creation of local companies that use information technology to market this food, which he predicts can increase GDP in the oblast by R100 billion.

(9) To increase grain production by no less than 4 million tons annually.

(10) To increase irrigated land by 300,000 hectares, which is forecast to increase grain production by 3 million tons.

(11) To create a special commission that will oversee regional investment projects not only in agriculture but in other branches of the economy. The commission should include initiators of projects and managerial personnel from government, banking, and the private business sector.

17. In March 2017 the federal program for the development of agriculture was amended and budgetary outlays were substantially reduced. A revision of the agricultural program from December 2014 had indicated federal support in the amount of R300 billion was to be allocated in 2017, R324 billion in 2018, R337 billion in 2019, and R350 billion in 2020. The 2017 revision now envisions R215 billion in 2017, R197 billion in 2018, and R194 billion in 2019 and 2020 (Pravitel’stvo Rossiyskoy Federatsii 2017). The changes were confirmed by the Ministry of Agriculture during the first week in April. The consequence is that financial allocations to regions are likely to be reduced as well, although those numbers have not yet been made public to the best of our knowledge.