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Post-Soviet Transformation of Livestock in Central Russia According to Statistics, Satellite Imagery, and the Authors’ Observations

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Abstract—

This article examines the main trends in the spatial organization of animal husbandry in the post-Soviet years based on a multiscale study of regions in Russia’s Central Federal District. Using Rosstat data on municipal districts, topographic maps, and remote sensing data with different resolutions enabled us to uncover the pattern and spatial changes of animal husbandry, at a scale of a single farm. After a catastrophic decline in the livestock numbers in the 1990s, animal husbandry is recovering; however, partially changing its specialization, organizational structure, and localization. Against the overall increase in meat production in the recent years, mainly due to pork and poultry, the number of cattle in most regions continues to decline. At the same time, the degree of concentration of animal husbandry has increased versus Soviet times. The selectivity of animal husbandry restoration contributes to its spatial polarization—few foci of concentration along vast territories of the Non-Chernozem zone abandoned and gradually overgrown with forest. To verify official statistical data, we used ultra-high-resolution remote sensing data on the distribution of livestock production infrastructure and its state, examples of which are given in diagrams and maps. Comparing data of topographic maps dating to late 1980s and current satellite images showed that more than 4000 farms were abandoned in regions of the Central Federal District, at the same time many new modernized enterprises appeared. Maps compiled for municipal districts clearly reflect the contemporary spatial structure of livestock production. We also reflect on the spatial organization of large agroholdings in detail with examples.

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Notes

  1. Food consumption in households in 2018 (based on the results of a sample survey of household budgets). Moscow: FSGS, 2019; Russian meat market in 2018. http://americanbeefclub.com/ru/about-club-ru/sobytiya/rynok-myasa-v-rossii-v-2018-godu/. Accessed January 20, 2020.

  2. Russian regions. Moscow: FSGS, 2001, 2009, 2019.

  3. During the reign of Yuri Luzhkov in Moscow, a target program was adopted for integrating Moscow’s food complex enterprises with agricultural ones, according to which Moscow holdings would acquire agricultural enterprises with interest-free loans or conclude long-term contracts with them for supply of dairy or meat products. There is an example of the Moscow mayor office’s targeted creation of a large dairy complex in Kaluga Oblast, MosMedynagroprom (Nefedova, 2013, pp. 98–100).

  4. All-Russian Agricultural Census 2016, vol. 2. Preliminary results of All-Russian Agricultural Census of 2016 for federal subjects, Moscow: ISC Statistics of Russia, 2017.

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Funding

The study was carried out in the Institute of Geography RAS and supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 19-17-00174 “Early Developed Regions under Socioeconomic Polarization and Shrinkage of Active Space in European Russia”). The study based on space imaging data was developed by A.A. Medvedev within the framework of the state-ordered research theme “Geoinformation and Cartographic Analysis and Remote Monitoring of the Interaction Between Nature and Society,” no. АААА-А19-119022190168-8.

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  1. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Medvedev & T. G. Nefedova

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  1. A. A. Medvedev
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  2. T. G. Nefedova
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Correspondence to A. A. Medvedev or T. G. Nefedova.

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Medvedev, A.A., Nefedova, T.G. Post-Soviet Transformation of Livestock in Central Russia According to Statistics, Satellite Imagery, and the Authors’ Observations. Reg. Res. Russ. 11, 589–604 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970521040134

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