Freeze Frames of Agriculture

No employment, no productivity.

In agricultural policy, our country has not risen to a new level and, therefore, clings to the past. Figuratively speaking, with blue fingers.

Of course, to confirm this, it is necessary to turn to practice, to its statistics, even the official one. This information can be obtained by reading the media reports on the Vitsebsk regional executive committee's meeting in the videoconference mode, which was attended by representatives of regional structures and Lukashenka's assistant, the inspector for the Vitsebsk region Anatol Linevich.

What did the conference participants talk and argue about, what conclusions did they draw?

The premise for the discussion was a simple statement - firstly, there is not enough personnel in agriculture, and secondly, how to attract them to work in agricultural organizations.

It turns out, according to state statistics, the agrarian economy employs, as the conference participants complained, only 36 thousand workers, or 7.5% of all employed in the economy of the Vitsebsk region.

Statistics makes sense when it allows you to determine the quantitative ratio of similar objects and, on this basis, make qualitative assessments. For example, in the EU in the 90s, the share of employment in EU agriculture decreased from 9.7 to 7.5% of total employment in the economy, and by the mid-20s fell to 4.4%.

Of course, European governments are also dealing with the personnel problem but based on the obvious fact that workers' employment in agriculture is determined by the logic of economic development in the world.

Employment in agricultural organizations, according to the figures presented at the meeting of Vitebsk agrarians, today is at the average European level of the mid-90s. Based on this indicator, one can judge the general state of the regional agro-economy, primarily labor productivity, which is 2-3 decades behind the average European level.

If additional workers are attracted in the current conditions, then the increase in labor productivity can be forgotten. It's good that nothing happens with this nonsense, since Belarus, although it adheres to very original approaches to the economy, is unable to overcome the general tendency to reduce employment in agriculture.

Over the past 25 years, the share of the urban population of Belarus has been constantly increasing. For example, the population of the capital from 1993 to 2021 grew by about 640 thousand people, which is equal to the population of the two regional centers. In turn, the rural population of the regions was decreasing at an alarming rate. In the Brest region, the rural population decreased by 200 thousand people. In other regions, the losses turned out to be comparable, and in the Vitebsk region, the number of the rural population over these years actually decreased by half.

At the same time, as noted at a meeting in the Vitsebsk executive committee, the staff's average age has reached about 50 years. The age when any demographic policy is doomed to failure.

The case when "Baba Yaga can be found in the team," but the Snow Maiden cannot.

Apparently, the candles have actually already flashed and are now extinguished.

Indeed, in many farms, retirees work on farms and in workshops. Students study in specialized educational institutions, thousands of specialists are trained for the industry, but they do not want to work according to their education.

As noted at the meeting, every year, specialists are massively dismissed from agriculture for various reasons. But ordinary workers are ahead of them in this matter. So, in November last year, 1440 workers were dismissed from agricultural organizations, 866 people were hired. That is, the replacement rate of hired workers to dismissed ones was 76.6%. At the same time, 144 people were fired for absenteeism and other violations of discipline.

And this problem is not solved at meetings and by Lukashenka's decrees.

Kanstantsin Skuratovich, Our Opinion