This year, the Orenburg Region is experiencing abnormal agrometeorological conditions, characterised by a high average daily temperature and acute precipitation deficit.
Due to uncharacteristic heat waves and lack of rain, soil moisture has rapidly dropped, causing crops to dry out and perish.
The severe drought has forced the Regional Government Commission on Emergency and Fire Prevention to impose the state of emergency in 32 of the total 35 districts and two cities.
Between July 8 and July 10, 2009, an Agriculture Ministry commission surveyed the crops affected by the drought.
2,819,472 acres of crops have perished, a damage estimated at over 5 billion roubles ($160,800,000). The region's total area of grain crops in 2009 totals 7,586,135 acres. In the region's districts, emergency control commissions have been created to devise and implement action plans for minimising the effects of the drought.
The region's Governor issued an Executive Order On Harvesting Issues, Forage Conservation, Autumn Sowing and Ploughing for 2009.
In 2009, over 3.6 billion roubles ($115,776,000) in regional and federal funding have been earmarked for a range of agricultural subsidies. As of July 31, 2009, 1,474,000,000 roubles ($47,403,840) have been transferred to agricultural goods producers.
The bulk of the funding was allocated to subsidise interest rate payments, livestock products, support of livestock breeding, partial reimbursement of chemicals purchase, elite seed production and equipment deliveries via the regional leasing fund. Up until October 1, 2009, over 1 billion roubles ($32,160,000) of budget funding will be allocated to support the regional agricultural sector.
For seasonal work, 3.2 billion roubles ($102,912,000) in short-term loans and 650 million roubles ($20,904,000) in long-term loans have been transferred through Rosselkhozbank.
In the first half of 2009, the region's subsidised agricultural loans totalled 14,989,200,000 roubles ($480,688,655), including 4,212,000,000 roubles ($135,074,628) in short-term loans, 8,354,400,000 roubles ($267,917,254) in investment loans, and 2,419,800,000 roubles ($77,820,768) of small business loans.
Drought-affected businesses took a total of 3,288,800,000 roubles ($105,767,808) in investment loans and 584,700,000 roubles ($18,750,744) in short-term loans.
The Orenburg Region Government will support agricultural manufacturers seriously affected by natural disasters in 2009. The regional budget will subsidise grain and forage purchase. In addition, payments for leased equipment and loans for creating regional food banks will be prolonged by one year.