Russian Federation | Nation of Braveness

The total area of cultivated land in Russia was estimated as 1,237,294 sq km in 2005, the fourth largest in the world. Unlike most other countries, Russia has large reserves of unused arable land, in part due to the drop in agricultural production during the economy crisis of 1990s, when the area planted to grains dropped by 25%. This was accompanied by a severe decline of livestock inventories.

In 1999-2009, however, Russia's agriculture demonstrated steady growth, and the country turned from a grain importer to the third largest grain exporter after EU and U. S. in 2009. The production of meat has grown from 6,813,000 tonnes in 1999 to 9,331,000 tonnes in 2008, and continues to grow.

This restoration of agriculture was supported by successful farm credit policy of the government, helping both individual farmers and large privatized corporate farms, that once were Soviet kolkhozes and still own the significant share of agricultural land in Russia. While large individual farms and corporate farms concentrate mainly on the production of grain (including for export), as well as husbandry products, small private household plots produce most of the country's yield of potatoes, vegetables and fruits.