State support for organic agriculture

Voronina Natal'ya Pavlovna Doctor of Law Associate Professor, Professor of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Law, O.E. Kutafin University (MSLA) 125933, Russia, Moscow, Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya str., 9 nvoroninamgua@yandex.ru

The development of organic agriculture is recognized as one of the goals of building a modern model of agriculture both in the Russian Federation and in the world.

Federal Law No. 280-FZ of August 3, 2018 "On Organic Products and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" (hereinafter referred to as the Organic Law) in Article 9 provides that state support for producers of organic products is provided in the manner and forms provided for by Federal Law No. 264 of December 29, 2006-Federal Law "On the Development of Agriculture" (hereinafter – the Law on Agriculture).

Article 7 of the Agricultural Law provides that the development of organic agriculture and the support of agricultural producers producing it is a direction of state support, the measures of which are envisaged both at the level of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the Russian Federation.

Based on the context of the Organic Law, priority in legal regulation is mainly given to federal executive authorities. But the subjects of the Russian Federation can also adopt their own regulatory legal acts, because based on Article 3 of the Organic Law, "the legal regulation of relations in the field of organic production is based on ... laws and other regulatory legal acts of the subjects of the Russian Federation." In conjunction with the provisions of the Law on Agriculture, the system of legal regulation of state support for organic production can be characterized, at least, as two-level: federal and regional levels.

A thorough review of regional legislation regarding the regulation of organic production was conducted by I. A. Ignatieva ^[3].

Currently , there are two models of legal regulation of measures of state support for organic producers: 1) among the general measures of state support for producers of all types of agricultural products (this approach is implemented in regulatory legal acts regulating the support of agriculture as a whole) and 2) measures of state support for producers of organic products (it is implemented either in the norms incorporated into the general regulatory legal act aimed at the development of agriculture as a whole, or in regulations aimed at regulating organic agriculture).

Basically, the first model of regulation of measures of state support for organics has been implemented in the subjects of the Russian Federation.

As the practice of regional rulemaking shows, a number of subjects of the Russian Federation ^{[6, p.62]} have adopted laws regulating the production of organic products that have proven themselves well in law enforcement practice.

In the Law of the Voronezh Region dated July 13, 2020 No. 80-OZ "On the Regulation of certain relations in the Field of organic production in the Voronezh Region" (hereinafter referred to as the Law of the Voronezh Region) and the Law of the Krasnodar Territory dated July 5, 2019 No. 4077–KZ "On the development of organic production in the Krasnodar Territory" (hereinafter referred to as – The Law of the CC) the information and methodological support of organic agriculture is regulated in detail.

Information support includes the placement of information: about suppliers of goods, works, services for the production of organic matter, about land plots for its production; about the results of scientific research; about the producers of these products; about legal acts in the field of production and turnover of organic matter (art. 7 of the Law in, art. 8 of the Law of the CC).

Methodological support is the organization of the development of recommendations on organic production technologies and scientific research, analysis of the best practices of organic production, provision of consulting and educational services, training, organization of participation in the development of draft legal acts, etc. (Article 8 of the HE Law).

The CC Law defines the directions of state policy in the field of organic production. These are the development of the market for organic products, increasing the competitiveness of domestic products, the development of small and medium-sized businesses, maintaining the ecological balance of ecosystems, providing the population with safe and useful products (Article 4 of the CC Law).

Among the measures of state support for the production of organic products are the provision of subsidies from the regional budget for reimbursement of part of the costs of organic production, for the purchase and use of soil-improving substances, fertilizers and plant protection products, for the provision of per-hectare support for the implementation of a complex of agrotechnological measures for the cultivation of organic products; for certification of organic production (Article 7 of the CC Law).

A more expanded list of measures of state support for organic producers is provided in the Saratov region (hereinafter – SO). Thus, the Law of November 4, 2003 No. 68-ZSO "On state support for the production and sale of agricultural products (including organic products) in the Saratov region" establishes as such assistance in obtaining loans, machinery and equipment for leasing, subsidizing part of the interest rate on loans, insurance premium compensation, advance purchases organic products, purchasing and commodity interventions.

Meanwhile, as a rule, measures of state support for organic producers in most subjects of the Russian Federation are mainly limited only to information and methodological support of organic agriculture. This makes it possible to popularize organic products among the population and producers. But more substantial assistance is needed for organic producers. According to E. L. Minin, "the need for special measures of state support for organic production ... is due to a number of circumstances, including the duration and complexity of the transition to organic methods of agricultural production, ... but at the same time the interest of the state and society in obtaining high-quality food for the population and improving the state of the environment in rural areas" ^{[4, p.96]}. In our opinion, it is necessary to expand the measures of state support for organic producers. In particular, to provide for the provision of land plots from state and municipal ownership from agricultural lands for the production of organic products on a preferential basis. Moreover, "the share of lands on which organic farming technology is used in the total area of agricultural land in Russia is significantly lower than the global average" ^[5]. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the area of agricultural land on which organic agriculture is carried out. This correlates with the forecast of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia on the increase in the volume of the domestic market of organic products by 2030 to 150 billion rubles and the growth of exports of organic products to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China.

Personnel training is needed for organic agriculture. When organizing it, it is possible to take into account the positive experience of friendly countries, such as India and Brazil.

In India, "the production of organic products ... is recognized as a strategic task at the national level … The main directions of the state policy in the field of organic agriculture are the definition of standards for the production of organic products and its certification. In addition, state programs have been developed for training and advanced training for producers of organic products and organizations that certify organic products" ^{[2, p.184]}.

In Brazil, the training of qualified personnel in the course of agronomy with the specialization "organic agriculture" is actively carried out ^{[7, pp.59-60]}.

The organization of personnel training in the field of organic production should be carried out in the Russian Federation, including through digital technologies. Currently, a number of educational organizations in Russia are carrying out such training. In particular, the Russian State Agrarian University - the Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy is the first university that began to train personnel for organic agriculture within the framework of the direction "Agrochemistry and agro-soil science". But in the field of training personnel for organic agriculture, an urgent issue remains "the development of professional educational standards and programs of primary vocational, secondary vocational and higher education, which will allow training highly qualified personnel for organic agriculture at all levels of both secondary vocational and higher education" ^[5].

A strategic planning document in the field of organic agriculture is needed. For example, in India it is a National Program for Organic Production. In Russia, at the initiative of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia has developed a draft Strategy for the development of organic agricultural production until 2030. It notes, "according to the National Organic Union, more than 290 thousand hectares of land for organic production have been certified in Russia, the market is growing by about 10% per year" ^[5]. Among the main directions of organics are the production of dairy products, baby food, animal husbandry. At the same time, there are practically no organic wild plants, aquaculture, beekeeping.

Regarding organic beekeeping in the Russian Federation, we can say that organic honey is actually produced in our country, but the Russian Federation lags behind foreign countries, including due to the lack of proper legal regulation.

The Federal Law of December 30, 2020 490-FZ "On Beekeeping in the Russian Federation" has been adopted and is in force in Russia. But there are no norms aimed at the development of organic beekeeping.

40 constituent entities of the Russian Federation have adopted their own laws on beekeeping. But they, as a rule, copy the norms of the federal law on beekeeping and do not provide for the development of organic beekeeping. There is no such regulation in the Law on Organic Products.

Some experts propose to adopt a separate law on organic beekeeping ^{[1, p.23]}. In our opinion, it is impractical to adopt a separate federal law on organic beekeeping. We believe that it is necessary to supplement the Law on Organic Products with appropriate norms by directly indicating its application to organic beekeeping relations, and in the Law on Beekeeping to make a reference to the Law on Organic.

Thus, state support is an institutional factor in the development of organic agriculture. A separate set of state support measures is needed, which is normatively fixed in addition to the general agricultural Law in the Organic Law. In the practice of rule–making, such an approach - for example, measures of state support for private households, in addition to the Law on Agriculture, are provided for in Federal Law No. 112-FZ of July 7, 2003 "On personal subsidiary farming".