The place of ecology in agricultural development projects

Bogolyubov Sergei Aleksandrovich Doctor of Law Scientific Director of the Department of Environmental and Agrarian Legislation, Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation 117218, Russia, Moscow, B.cheremushkinskaya str., 34 bogolyubovsa@mail.ru Other publications by this author

     In society, in everyday consciousness, the conviction about the inextricable links of agriculture and forestry with the natural environment is formed not without reason: indeed, land, forest, and other natural objects serve not only as the immediate spatial base of agriculture, forestry, but also as a source of food production, a means of ensuring the country's food security. It is no coincidence that the Law of the Russian Federation on the amendment of the Constitution of the Russian Federation No. 1-FKZ of March 14, 2020, agriculture, included in the subject of joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the Russian Federation, is placed in paragraph "d" of Part 1 of Article 71 of the text of the Basic Law of the Russian Federation between nature management and environmental protection, ensuring environmental safety.

     The reduction of the area of agricultural land on the globe, the aggravation of food problems, the need to ensure the country's food sovereignty have caused in the last decade to attract attention to the tasks of their solution, the adoption of numerous projects for the development of agriculture in connection with the need to overcome the backwardness of some of its elements and industries ^{[1; 2, pp. 113-115; 4, pp. 169-171; 6, p.8]}.

     A lot of scientific research has been devoted to environmental protection in agriculture, communication with nature in the course of agro-industrial production in the form of specialized publications, candidate and doctoral dissertations, scientific and practical conferences, symposiums, round tables, etc. ^{[3, pp. 89-93; 7; 9]}.

     It is of undoubted interest to what extent the conceptual projects outlining the tasks and directions of the development of agriculture in the Russian Federation provide for specific forms of interaction between agriculture and the natural environment surrounding man, reflecting the ideas and intentions of the legislator, including a combination of objective laws of nature and subjective laws created by the will of man.

     The main regulatory act of the industry – the Federal Law of December 29, 2006 "On the development of Agriculture" N 264 provides only among the main objectives of the state agrarian policy – 3) conservation and reproduction of natural resources used for agricultural production; such a fundamental provision of the Law runs a red line in most agricultural development projects; among the directions and the principles of the development of agriculture environment are not mentioned in the said Law.

     In this Federal Law, among the numerous projects that form the basis of the system of state information support in the field of agriculture, information is offered by the federal executive authority responsible for the formation of official statistical information on social, economic, demographic, environmental and other social processes in the Russian Federation; environmental motives are also seen among the list of information information in the last place.

     In the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 8, 2022 "On approval Strategies for the development of agro-industrial and fisheries complexes of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030" N 2567-p indicates that the development of the agro-industrial complex is provided primarily in rural areas, which are a key resource of the Russian Federation, the importance of which is rapidly growing in the conditions of increasing globalization processes while increasing the importance of natural and territorial resources for the development of the country.

    Numerous items, sub-items contain the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Agriculture for 2017-2030, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated August 25, 2017 "On approval of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Agriculture for 2017-2030" N 996, but among the goals, directions of the program, subprograms, their target indicators, expected results there is no mention of environmental protection.

The extensive Russian state program "Integrated Development of Rural Territories", approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated May 31, 2019 "On approval of the State Program of the Russian Federation "Integrated Development of Rural Territories" and on Amendments to Certain Acts of the Government of the Russian Federation" No. 696 contains a description of the priorities and goals of state policy in the field of Program implementation, general requirements to the policy of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the field of the Program, the tasks of public administration and ensuring the national security of Russia, the mechanisms of their effective solution to ensure the development of rural areas, the contribution of the Program to the achievement of national goals of the Russian Federation, the tasks of ensuring the achievement of indicators of socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation, which are part of the priority territories, the level of which should be above the average level for Russia, etc., but has no indication of the relationship of the problems under consideration with the environment.

     The Strategy for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 151-r dated February 2, 2015, provides for "Natural resources and the environment", including protected areas, fire fighting, tasks to ensure the achievement of indicators of socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation that are part of priority territories etc.

     Section Y "Priority directions of state policy ..." includes item 5. "Development of rational nature management and improvement of the ecological situation in rural areas", where ensuring their environmental safety on the basis of the development of rational nature management and timely implementation of measures to prevent the negative impact of anthropogenic processes on the environment is recognized as a necessary condition for the sustainable development of rural areas.

     It is further indicated that the organization and planning of rural development should be carried out taking into account the need to preserve the existing land fund, biological diversity, natural and cultural landscapes, for which the following tasks should be consistently solved:

   conservation and improvement of the land fund; conservation of biological diversity and organization of rational hunting and fishing;

   improving the efficiency of water use and management of water resources; ensuring safe storage and disposal of production and consumption waste; effective forestry management.

     Solving the problem of preserving and improving the land fund implies the implementation of the following measures:

     reconstruction of existing and construction of new reclamation systems; protection of land from water erosion, flooding and flooding; introduction of cost-effective irrigation systems; protection of land from wind erosion;

     creation of a system of protective forest plantations, ensuring an increase in the effectiveness of measures to combat land degradation and desertification, restore soil fertility, ensure environmental and food security of the country, reduce the level of discomfort in places of work and residence of the population;

     allocation of natural and agricultural zones and development of regulations for agricultural land use, taking into account environmental protection activities and agro-climatic zoning.

     As can be seen from these projects of a strategic nature, their prescriptions perceive the environment – nature in them, mainly as a condition for the further development of agriculture, and not as an object of protection on its part.

     In documents of a more general nature – in the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 2, 2021 "On the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation" N 400, The spatial development strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025, approved by the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated February 13, 2019 N 207-r, projecting rural development, nature protection in the context of it is not considered in detail. The Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation provides for some measures to protect the environment and organize rational use of natural resources, but not in the context of the development of agriculture.     A similar situation is observed in texts and contents:

    The long-term strategy for the development of the grain complex of the Russian Federation until 2035, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated August 10, 2019 N 1796-r;

    The Unified Plan for achieving the National Development goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024 and for the planning period up to 2030, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 1, 2021 N 2765-r;

   The list of initiatives of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation until 2030, approved by the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated October 6, 2021 N 2816-p;

    The State Program for the effective involvement in the turnover of agricultural lands and the development of the reclamation complex of the Russian Federation, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated May 14, 2021 "On the State Program for the effective involvement in the turnover of agricultural lands and the development of the reclamation complex of the Russian Federation" N 731, etc.

 Some mention of ecology is found in the subprogram "Development of animal feed and feed additives production", developed by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and the Russian Academy of Sciences within the framework of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 3, 2021 "On Amendments to the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Agriculture on 2017-2025 years" N 1489.

    After establishing the formation of a breeding base of genetic resources for 13 types of farm animals, it outlines the development of a reclamation and water management complex aimed at solving numerous tasks, including protecting the population and economic facilities from floods and other harmful effects of water on the basis of a balanced solution to socio-economic problems, preserving a favorable environment and natural resource potential, especially in terms of preserving and increasing soil fertility, as well as preserving natural water bodies.

Of course, the inclusion of environmental goals and activities in the documents with the design of agricultural development does not mean their implementation, but the designation of environmental objectives in regulatory documents serves as a guideline for law enforcement officers, indicates the formulation, attempts to solve these problems ^[8;10].

In general, preference is given to the impact of the natural environment on agriculture, rather than agriculture on the environment. For example, the mechanism of agricultural insurance, insurance protection of agricultural production, property interests of agricultural producers, should take into account annual climatic changes, the occurrence of natural hazards and emergencies of a natural nature.

The development of the agro-industrial complex in modern conditions is associated with risks and threats that significantly reduce the production potential, in particular, climatic and agroecological threats caused by adverse climatic changes, abnormal natural phenomena of a spontaneous nature, an increase in the proportion of degraded lands, a decrease in the fertility of agricultural lands, the consequences of natural and man-made emergencies.      When listing the factors of the internal and external environment related to weaknesses, a high degree of dependence on natural and climatic factors, global climate changes that are unfavorable for production in a number of key producing regions of Russia are called.

Title of Federal Law No. 101-FZ of July 16, 1998 "On State Regulation of ensuring the fertility of agricultural lands" (with amendments and additions) by itself, it speaks about the content and purposes of this regulatory legal act. In its chapter I "State regulation of activities in the field of ensuring the fertility of agricultural lands (Articles 9-22) in Article 21

"Environmental requirements for ensuring the fertility of agricultural lands" contains only an instruction that ensuring the fertility of agricultural lands should be carried out subject to compliance with environmental requirements established by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

      The sequence and logic of agricultural development projects are understandable for agricultural producers and other citizens, aimed at modernizing the agro–industrial complex of Russia, where nature and the environment are the most important factor in the rise of agriculture, but not the purpose of its implementation and management. This is how agricultural projects differ from environmental legislation aimed at ensuring environmental protection, combined with the organization of rational nature management, in a complex and in various spheres of management.

      In the Federal Law of January 10, 2002 "On Environmental Protection" No. 7-FZ, Article 42 "Requirements in the field of environmental protection in the implementation of activities in the field of agriculture" (as amended. Federal Law No. 453-FZ of 27.12.2019) provides that when carrying out activities in the field of agriculture, environmental protection requirements must be met, measures must be taken to preserve and restore the natural environment, rational use of natural resources, ensure environmental safety, prevent negative environmental impacts, and rationing in the field of environmental protection must be carried out. environment. This article is too general, it seems to be quite concise and does not differ in specifics from the environmental requirements for most other areas of economic and other activities, which does not serve the effectiveness of nature protection requirements in agriculture.

The Article 43 "Requirements in the field of environmental protection in land reclamation, design, construction, reconstruction, commissioning and operation of reclamation systems and separately located hydraulic structures" of the same Law is formulated much more extensively.

Some environmental requirements for agriculture are contained in Articles 13 of the RF CC, 59, 60 and 65 of the RF CC, 38, 105 and 107 of the RF LC, 22 of the Federal Law on Wildlife. In foreign law, one can sometimes find a more thorough detailing of environmental requirements for agriculture: in the Land of Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany, the Regulation on the establishment of protection zones and financial compensation in the areas of drinking water sources prohibits the plowing of perennial grasslands and the use of a number of plant protection products ^{[5, pp.243-252]}.

Part of the environmental requirements for agriculture is provided for in the by-laws of Russia: for example, the Rules for the Use of Forests for Agriculture were approved by Order No. 314 of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia dated June 21, 2017.

According to the SanPiN 2.2.1/2.1.1.1200-03 "Sanitary protection zones and sanitary classification of enterprises, structures and other objects" belong to the 1st hazard classes livestock facilities, except pigsties, cowsheds, kennels, stables, animal farms with up to 50 animals, which with storages of fruits, vegetables, potatoes, grain belong to Y class of danger.

The general conclusion is that in projects, as well as acts on the development of agriculture, priority is given to protecting the agro-industrial complex from the negative effects of the forces of nature, their use in the interests of improving food well-being, and not protecting the environment from pollution during agricultural production, although it becomes one of the most important pollutants of nature. Such a bias should be gradually corrected and agricultural development projects should include not only its dependence on nature, measures to overcome it, but also ways of conducting such agricultural production that will negatively affect the quality of the environment at a minimum.