The Russian Association of Farm Holdings and Agricultural Cooperatives (AKKOR) is a non-governmental non-profit organisation which represents the interests of small and medium-sized agricultural producers and promotes farming and other types of small and medium-sized agricultural businesses in Russia.
Established in January 1990, AKKOR embraces 68 regional unions and associations of farmers which represent more than 600 district-level organisations and about 1,500 cooperative associations and enterprises included as part of the farming infrastructure. AKKOR also has two collective members: the Russian Movement of Countrywomen and the Russian Agrarian Youth Union.
AKKOR is involved in drafting laws with due account of farmers' interests, as well as in carrying out a National Agriculture Development Programme over the period spanning from 2008 to 2012, and a sectoral target programme to develop pilot family dairy farms on the basis of farm holdings spanning 2009 to 2011.
In 1991, on AKKOR's initiative, a Russian Farmer Fund was set up to provide support to farmers and facilitate further farm development. The fund helped spread farming practices at a spectacular pace: whereas in 1991 there were 49,000 farm holdings across Russia, the next year their number climbed to 182,000, and in 1993 to 270,000.
Farming and other small business in rural areas play a significant role in Russia's agriculture, which has a mixed ownership structure, as they produce more than 55% of all domestic farming products. In 2010, according to preliminary data issued by Rosstat (Federal Service for State Statistics), farms harvested 13.3 million tonnes of grain and leguminous plants which accounted for 22% of all grain harvested in Russia (up 1% from 2009); 2.4 million tonnes of sugar beet, or 11% of the total (up 1% from 2009); and 1.4 million tonnes of sunflower, or 26% of the total (down 3% from 2009). Last year the population of cattle on all Tambov farms increased by 5.3% from 2009, reaching 1.4 million heads, including 668,000 cows, the population of which grew 5.4% from a year earlier. Despite the drought and crop shortfall in 2010, farmers managed to produce 1.5 million tonnes of milk (up 5.6% from 2009), 0.3 million tonnes of meat and poultry in terms of live weight (up 6% from 2009), and 300 million eggs (up 1.1% from 2009).