"It is a well-grounded forecast", he told the Monday meeting between his ministerial tops with members of the interfactional deputy association on the agricultural and food policy in the State Duma.
A more optimistic harvest forecast was made by Anatoli Mikhalev, head of the Federal Agricultural Agency, at the meeting with Duma deputies. He said that the cereals forecast for 2004 will be 10 to 12 million tonnes more than last year.
In 2003 the grain harvest stood at over 67 million tonnes.
Mikhalev said that the cereals harvesting area in 2004 will be four million hectares larger than last year and constitute 45.4 million hectares.
The head of the Federal Agency also said that, as of May 24, all farming-unit categories have sown spring cereals on 27 million hectares, or 78 percent of the planned and 3.5 million hectares above last year's. To him, the Ural and Siberian regions are lagging behind the sowing plans, which is due above all to the bad weather.
The bill On the Development of Agriculture intends two times greater state support for agricultural producers, said Gennadi Kulik, chairman of the Duma agricultural committee.
He said that the Duma-submitted draft law includes 14 programmes in three directions - support for the agroindustrial complex, regulation of the agricultural and food market, development of agricultural lands.
"The minimal demand for investments under the bill is 60 billion roubles (over 2 billion dollars)", Kulik said. To him, the 2004 budget allocates 31.3 billion roubles as support for agriculture.
Adoption of the law means "major adjustment of our economic course". The favourable situation on the oil market should be used to support agriculture, he said.
The Agricultural Ministry has given a positive assessment of the draft law and made its corrections.
"The draft is to be considered in first reading before June 10, when deputies leave for work in their regions", Kulik believes.
Taking the floor at the conference, Agricultural Minister Alexei Gordeev noted that, if deputies fail to pass the draft law in 2004, "formation of the 2005 budget will be problematic".
