Russian agricultural aviation struggles to survive (420 words)

Published: 10/23/2000

The plans of Alexander Ruzkoi, Governor of the Kursk region, to improve the agriculture aviation in his region may be thrown into doubt, after the news that he has been removed as a guberntorial candidate for the region by the federal government at the next round of elections due to “irregularities” and could become the first victim of Putin's campaign to bring regional governors into line. Under the programme 2 new agriculture airlines are to be created. Aviahim currently operating 8 An-2 and KurskAero operating an H-32SH. Kursk's department of ROSTO (Russian Defence Sports Technical Organisation), is also supports agriculture using 2 Mi-2. According to sources so far this year agriculture aviation has covered 110,000 hectares, but well short of the 220,000 hectares required. The plan therefore calls for 25 An-2, 4 Mi-2, 5 light aircraft to be in support of agriculture in Kursk region by 2005 in order to process larger areas. The desperate situation of the agriculture sector in Russia, means that the situation in Kursk is by no means unique. The age of the fleets, rising spare part costs , rising fuel prices combined with the availability of fuel for operating aircraft such as the An-2, have resulted in the grounding of large numbers of agricultural aircraft. Some effort has been made to introduce lower cost light aircraft from a couple of producers including RSK MiG with their “Farmer” ultra light, but even these aircraft have proved to be beyond the resources of many of the agricultural organisations. MiG struggled to sell 15 of the $40,000 Aviatika-890 in 1998 and sales continue to run well below the factory's goal of 100 sales per year. The nature of agriculture in Russia does however; mean that aviation is a valuable tool in increasing yields. Governments both regional and federal are therefore obviously keen to address the issue as in Kursk, and deal with the requirement estimated by RSK MiG at over 1200 aircraft. To date however, the principle action has been the creation of the state owned general aviation company Avialine, which seems to be initially at least, to be primarily concerned with feeder and air taxi services. There have been discussions regarding the use of an agricultural version of the Il-103 reported to be under development and the Corvette amphibian. The concern from those in the sector however, is that Avialine's charter costs will be beyond the resources of agricultural enterprises.

Article ID: 2140