Farmer from Kaluga Region to Triple Area Under Currants

Deputy Chairman of the People's Farmer Association, head of a peasant farm in the Kaluga Region Bapken Ispiryan plans to increase currant production. He shared these plans at the final forum "Development of Small Agribusiness in Russia". Currently, the area of currant plantations in Ispiryan's farm is 160 hectares, in the next three years he plans to increase it to 500 hectares. The farm also has chokeberry and apple tree plantations. He explains his choice in favor of currants by the fact that there is a labor shortage in Russia. "We needed a crop that is maximally mechanized," said the head of the peasant farm. The peasant farm began its activities in the region in 2009 with dairy farming, but in 2018 it decided to change the direction of the business to growing currants. Ispiryan noted that the niche was practically free at that time, since the sector had been filled with imports since the 1990s, but in the last six to seven years, including due to various forms of government ...