12:01AM
How Russia will matter beyond energy and minerals
Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 12:01AM 
From WSJ blurb "How to Bet the Farm on Mother Russia" (23 March 2011).
Besides being impressed with EU wheat production (they grow wheat like we grow corn), the point is how low Russia's yields remain. You combine that with all the fallow fields (one-third) and unused arable land, and Russia's upside is considerable - if it gets the foreign investment.
Blurb is about Russian company hoping to get investment. The company, Rusagro, wants to modernize old collective farms and buy up new land previously given to rural dwellers who aren't using it for agriculture (but might like the money).
Big hold up on investment is the climate - as in, business climate.
Reader Comments (1)
A long way from the old "Boy Meets Tractor" propaganda movies that the Communists put out in the 1930's and up to the 1950's. They fought so hard for that land in WWII and now a third of it is not being used?
Well, we have not managed our land any better. All that good rich soil in the Midwest buried under shopping malls and tract houses. When humans eventually kill everything in the oceans our descendants will be fighting over little patches of dirt and drinking water. Full circle.