The Accounts Chamber of Russia recommends improving the system of support for the use of agricultural land.

According to the Accounts Chamber press service, it is necessary to improve the system of state support in the field of agricultural land use in Russia.

Lands intended for agriculture occupy a quarter of the country's territory and play a key role in ensuring food security. Following the analysis of the Astrakhan and Nizhny Novgorod regions, the Accounts Chamber concluded that the funds allocated for bringing agricultural land into circulation are not used efficiently, and the measures of state support in this area require further improvement.

Auditor of the Accounts Chamber Sergey Mamedov noted that, despite the positive dynamics in reducing the share of unused land in the audited regions, the overall area of unused agricultural land in Russia has not significantly decreased.

As a result of the assessment of current measures aimed at the efficient use of agricultural land, the Accounts Chamber concluded on the need to adjust existing measures of state support and sectoral regulatory documents in this area.

Within the audit, the Accounts Chamber identified a number of shortcomings in the activities of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, including incorrect distribution and provision of subsidies amounting to 672.3 million rubles. In addition, financial audits in the audited regions revealed financial irregularities amounting to 70.5 million rubles, as well as cases of providing inaccurate information about the results of subsidy use.

One of the reasons for these deficiencies is the lack of complete and up-to-date data on agricultural lands. Despite the introduction of the Unified Federal Information System by the Ministry of Agriculture six years ago, it only contains information about 65.8% of agricultural lands. The lack of complete information on the qualitative characteristics of lands hinders their efficient use and the expansion of activities in agriculture.