ИСТИНА

Food security in Russia strongly depends on crop yields in a relatively narrow belt of high fertility lands located in the south of the European part of the country and Western Siberia. Over half of the entire production of cereals in the country is harvested from just 5.5% of its territory, following the diversity of soils and climates. Strong dependence of agriculture on weather (precipitation) conditions in major agricultural zones of the country complicates an analysis of the impact of agricultural policies on food production during various periods of the history of the Soviet Union. A separate analysis of weather factor and state agricultural policies in the performance of agriculture is, however, possible when statistical “weather- yields” models are used.