The current state of technological support for vegetable crops production in the Russian Federation

The main limiting factor in the development of the vegetable growing industry is the low technical level of vegetable cultivation. It should be noted that many works in domestic breeding, as well as in seed production of vegetable crops, are carried out manually. The decrease in the share of Russian varieties in the market of seed material of vegetable crops is largely due to the fact that the technological level and technical equipment of most originating institutions of Russian varieties are simply not comparable with the level of modern Western European breeding and seed production centers and companies that seek to increase the supply of seed material to the Russian market. One of the significant factors in increasing the efficiency of vegetable production is the use of highly efficient agricultural machinery and equipment. At the moment, there are no machines for performing the main operations of cultivating vegetable products in Russia, and the available agricultural machines for vegetable producers are on the verge of physical wear and tear and have long ago exhausted their depreciation resource. The existing foreign analogues presented on the Russian market do not fully meet the agrotechnical requirements imposed by Russian farmers on foreign-made machines. Based on the analysis of the technical support of the vegetable growing industry in the Russian Federation, the need for commodity producers in modern high-tech complexes of machines for the production of vegetable crops is economically determined based on the total sown area of vegetable crops. The results of the statistical studies carried out made it possible to assess the current state of agricultural engineering for the production of the required number of machines for vegetable growing. The increase in sown (planting) areas and the expected increase in the production of the main types of crop products against the background of a decrease in the availability of agricultural machinery contributes to an increase in the load per unit of equipment and creates risks of a decrease in the level of agricultural mechanization. Currently, low volumes of domestic seed production are associated, among other things, with the low level of technical equipment of breeding and seed-growing organizations with specialized machines and equipment.