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Turning
Russia's rich soil into riches
There are almost 100 million acres of farm land lying
deserted and unfarmed in one of the world's most fertile areas - land that
could feed millions of people.
This is not a doomsday scenario, it is a Russian reality.
At a time when world food prices are causing hunger and
poverty for millions of people around the world, it might at first seem
criminal. But those high prices could actually see the land once again bearing
food for the world's markets.
Two British farmers from Nottinghamshire have been breaking
new ground in the southern "chernozem" (black earth) region of
Russia, by turning derelict land into prime wheat growing fields.
Their introduction of modern farming methods has boosted
production to as much as three times that of local farmers.
Roll that out across Russia and, without touching any virgin
land, Russia could be providing the world with up to 300m tonnes of cereals a
year - making it the third largest cereal producer behind China and America.
Local farmer
In 2002 Richard Willows, a former commodities trader, and
Colin Hinchley, a farmer in his own right, came to Russia and bought up land in
the Penza region that no-one was farming.
They set up Heartlands Farm and began to apply modern
farming techniques with hi-tech equipment.
The results have been astounding - a serious eye opener not
just for them, but for the local authorities as well.
Colin Hinchley took us around his 67,000-acre farm and, as
we walked through a one of his fields of rippling green wheat, he explained how
they did it.
To Russia with ploughs: the British farmers who are heading
east
"This land was just scrub land. It's not been farmed
for eight or nine years, so we have to cut away the vegetation, the grass and
all the trees and begin the cultivation process," he said.
"The soil is very good and very consistent, considered
one of the best growing mediums in the world. And the large scale - this field
is the size of an average farm in England.
"So far we have managed to double the yields, but this
year we expect three times a normal Russian yield - around six tonnes a
hectare."
Heartlands have now been followed by many other foreign
agro-industrial giants. And not just foreigners but Russians, too, have seen
that there is money to be made not just by drilling in the ground but by
cultivating it as well.
Deserted landscape
A short drive off the beaten track on the way back to Penza
showed a very different story.
At the side of the road we caught sight of a weather-beaten
couple using a scythe to cut grass for their horse.
The wife told us: "There used to be a great collective
farm here with lots of tractors and people, but now there is nothing."
"The bosses drank it all away," her husband added.
There are productive farms run by the state but, with one of
the lowest levels of investment in agriculture in the world and a lack of
manpower, these are few and far between.
Many of the villages where these people lived are often now
deserted.
One village we drove through had only four wooden homes left
out of 400. In the centre was a large ruined Orthodox church rising up out of
the waist-high weeds. Its frescos were all gone and its cupolas colonised by
grass. The only signs of life were the skylarks and cuckoos singing in the
trees nearby.
Venturing further outside the village we drove cross-country
through what seemed like scrubland, but was in fact an abandoned field.
Trees and meadow flowers competed with each other on the
rolling hillside, and even a wild fox came close to see who had intruded on his
peace and quiet.
The rumble of tractor wheels had clearly not been heard here
for many years.
Over the next three years the same fox will watch
Heartlands' satellite-guided tractors transform his hunting ground into a wheat
field to feed hungry people.
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