Global warming gives Russian grain a new quality, by Alexey Anpilogov for RIA NOVOSTI. 08/10/2021.
Russia has reached new food records, and this time they concern not the quantity, but the quality of the new crop. What kind of food culture are we talking about, how is global warming helping domestic agriculture - and what opportunities do Russia have to influence other countries thanks to this?
In Russia, this year , the maximum share of milling wheat was revealed in recent years, its quality turned out to be a record for the entire history of observations. The final figures for the harvest of early grains indicate that more high-quality wheat of I, II and III classes were harvested than low-quality wheat of IV class and fodder grain of V class.
Grain is smaller, but it is of high quality
The usual criticism of Russian crop production and wheat cultivation, in particular, sounds like this: "Russia grows feed grain." A second nonsense is often added to this: "And bread in Russia is also made from fodder."
Bread in Russia is not made from feed grain: this is not allowed by the GOST for bakery flour. Although fodder is indeed constantly present in the Russian wheat crop. The thing is that the conditions for growing wheat in Russia are far from ideal. Most of the agricultural land in our country is located in the zone of risky farming, in which even high-quality wheat is already a gift, and corn, soybeans or sunflowers do not grow at all.
On the other hand, no one grows wheat of the V class (namely, it is called "fodder" and is used for livestock feed). Forage is simply the rejection of ordinary wheat, which did not pass according to GOST in the I-IV classes, which are considered food. Depending on climatic and weather conditions, seed material, correct agricultural practices, application of mineral fertilizers and the result of the work of pesticides and insecticides, the share of feed wheat may fluctuate in different years.
The class is determined, in particular, by the ratio of protein and gluten in the grain.
Moreover, the yield also affects the class of the resulting wheat: the higher the yield, the more likely it is that the plants simply will not "stretch" the ripening of high-quality grain - and most of the harvest will roll into fodder, losing quality. And, of course, where the climate is better and warmer in general, the quality of grain is higher on average. In particular, when harvesting wheat in France, the proportion of high quality grain is an order of magnitude higher.
This year, the grain harvest in Russia is expected to reach 127 million tons. This is quite at the level of the harvests of recent years, when the country annually collected 120-130 million tons. Recall that in 1998 this figure set an absolute anti-record - then only 48 million tons of grain were harvested throughout Russia, so a considerable path has been covered. Due to this, the main factors for improving the quality of Russian wheat were two points: the purposeful efforts of Russian agrarians and the gradual improvement of the Russian climate, which together made it possible to achieve impressive results in the quality of today's wheat. More evidence that global warming is on Russia's side.
In fact, for the first time in modern Russian history, in general, the share of milling wheat (I-IV classes) accounted for a record 87.5% of the harvest. For comparison, in past years, which were already much better than the catastrophe of the late 1990s, the average share of food wheat was much more modest - only 73.5%.
But even more interesting is the division within the classes of milling wheat: according to the results of the acceptance of grain of the 1st class, 0.02% was revealed, the 2nd class - 0.1%, the 3rd class - 45.7%, and the 4th class - 41.7%. Thus, this year, even more class IV wheat was harvested for high-quality class III wheat, which is used to a limited extent for the production of bread, mainly for cereals and pasta.
And yes, through simple mathematics, one can understand that this year the share of feed wheat in the Russian harvest is unprecedentedly small - only 12.5%. And this despite the fact that usually a good quarter of the harvest is of fodder quality.
All this has a direct financial dimension. The higher the class of wheat, the higher the prices for it. Of course, wheat pricing is not limited to this parameter alone, but in any case, Russian farmers can already thank themselves and nature for additional profits. This, however, is not the only benefit.
What does it give Russia
Few people already remember, but throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Russia was critically dependent on imports of food and, to be honest, even grain used to make bread. For these needs, it was even necessary to start up foreign loans and loans from the IMF, the situation with food security was so threatening.
In 2004, President Putin, realizing this problem, launched a state program for the development of agriculture - along with other national projects aimed at stimulating financing and creating production. Within the framework of this program, an understandable goal was set: to achieve 80–95% self-sufficiency in the main food categories. And, I must say, now, after almost two decades, the result of this program is quite visible and weighty.
Over the years, the production of wheat, like all cereals, has practically tripled. Today, Russia collects 72 million tons of wheat, which brought it to third place in the world after China (131 million tons) and India (about 100 million tons). Even in the USA today less wheat is harvested than in Russia - only 51 million tons, and in Canada, from where the USSR constantly received dry cargo grain carriers with wheat - and even less, only 32 million tons. Already in 2016, having saturated the domestic market, Russia switched to the export of wheat, and next year for the first time it overtook the traditional world leaders in grain export - the USA and Canada, and it still holds this leadership.
Moreover, food exports have become for Russia not only a source of hard currency and budget revenues, but also a political instrument. For example, the deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia on oil production, which led to the formation of the OPEC + mega cartel in 2016, had another dimension. Subsequently, it turned out that the oil deal with Riyadh included the supply of Russian wheat and barley for the needs of the kingdom. With Moscow's help, Saudi Arabia not only achieved stable oil prices, but also solved its food problems by opening its huge grain market to Russian products.
Russia is now responsible for 15% of the kingdom's grain imports, reliably tying Arab sheikhs to its wheat and barley.
Turkey has found itself in a similar situation, which can no longer provide its growing population with its own food. In 2019, Turkey became the largest importer of Russian wheat, but a little earlier it agreed to the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and the unconditional transit of Russian gas to Europe after Bulgaria refused. Coincidence? Perhaps...
A simple conclusion follows from this: for Russia, the export of grain and, in particular, the most valuable grain crop - milling wheat, has long become a factor of "soft power". In the end, here our country is only copying the successful experience of the United States, which throughout the twentieth century actively used food exports as an instrument of their foreign policy.
And, most importantly, modern Russia does not repeat the sad experience of the Russian Empire in exports, where the maxim “we will not eat, but we will take out” prevailed. Now the export of food is the second task after the food security of the country is closed completely and with a margin.
https://m.vz.ru/economy/2021/10/8/1123091.html
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- but still, the clue is, that due to climate changes, Russian land suitable for agriculture increased about twofold in the last decade.
