The latest Agriculture Ministry forecasts suggest that the yield will not exceed 65 million tones. Nevertheless, Russia will get passed it using last year's reserves.
During yesterday's Government Presidium meeting, the ministers discussed the consequences of the heat wave.
The prime minister said that a monitor had been installed in his office allowing him follow the progress in rebuilding houses at inhabited burn sites: webcams were installed at construction sites.
"The image isn't great at this point; the technicians will have to work on it some more," Putin said. "I request that you follow up on this so that everything is functioning properly at all locations, in all 14 regions and at all construction sites."
Vladimir Putin was assured that the construction was underway. Burned remnants were being removed, and the foundations of some new houses had already been laid.
"All those who have been left homeless must have new accommodations before the start of the cold season," the prime minister reminded everyone of the deadlines.
Those who were left homeless were given a choice of compensation and to wait for the completion of new houses or to buy existing housing on their own using the allocated money. However not all the victims have made this decision so far.
"Experience has shown that the amount of compensation stipulated in the law is too low to provide people with meaningful assistance," Vladimir Putin said. "This is why in the event of an emergency, we decide, on a case-by-case basis, to add to those minimum amounts. And in order to ensure that people's rights are upheld in the future, we will consider raising the minimum compensation paid to disaster victims."
The emergency relief compensation was doubled from five to ten thousand roubles. The compensation for completely destroyed property had a more considerable increase: from fifty thousand roubles per family to a hundred thousand per family member. Families who lost a family member in the fires will receive a minimum of one million roubles. All payments plus aid will be allocated from the federal treasury and the regional budgets. The government amended the laws so that the regional authorities could render aid to the victims promptly.
This summer's cataclysms revealed another problem: the country does not possess enough equipment to extinguish wildfires; the outdated equipment emergency crews have been using must be replaced.
"Obviously, we need a specific programme to upgrade fire-fighting equipment," Vladimir Putin said. "Urgent decisions have been taken concerning the purchases of BE 200 fire-fighting aircraft and equipping government-owned helicopters to extinguish wildfires."
Meanwhile the Ministry of Agriculture is attempting to soften the consequences on the economy of the drought. The grain was allocated from the intervention inventory to manufacturers, who needed it desperately, without auctions.
The prime minister also said they were forced to impose a temporary ban on grain exports.
"National grain consumption amounts to roughly 77-78 million tonnes a year," the prime minister said. "The latest Agriculture Ministry forecasts promise a far smaller yield than we expected at the beginning of the year: 65 or even 60 million tonnes. This amount will cover domestic consumption. Even if we harvest only 60 million tonnes, we have 9.5 million tonnes of emergency reserves in the intervention inventory plus 21 million tonnes left from last year, for a total of 90 million tonnes, while domestic demand is 78 million. But what reserves will we have for next year, 2011? We cannot forecast this harvest or what amount of surplus we will have.
Thus, according to the prime minister, the temporary ban on grain exports will not be dropped soon.
Nigina Beroyeva