The agricultural lands of Smolensk region amount to 1.74 mln. hectars which is 55% of the available land of the region. Area under crops is 591.2 thousand hectares, including the areas in agricultural organizations - 478.2 thousand hectares.

Agricultural produce is generated by 425 agricultural organizations, 1713 private farms and 150 000 individual households. Agricultural organizations are major producers of grain (78%) and flax products (85%). Potatoes and vegetables production is mainly concentrated in individual households - 98% and 94% respectively. The main specialization of local agriculture is dairy, meat and dairy cattle breeding, feed and forage production, flax growing and potatoes growing.

The base of the agricultural economy is cattle-breeding, where 82% of the gross agricultural product is produced. As of beginning of 2005 the cattle stock in all categories of agricultural producers amounted to 185 thousand, including 109 cows. "Shvitskaya" and "Sytchevskaya" breeds dominate.

Smolensk region is one of the major producers of pedigree cattle, raised in specialized farms.

The pigs livestock amounts to 85.4 thousand, sheep and goats livestock - 34.7 thousand, horses - 1.7 thousand.

Poultry farming is concentrated in large factories located in the vicinity of Smolensk - SPK "Prigorskoye" and "Smetanino". The poultry livestock amounts to 699.7 thousand. bout 287.1 mln. eggs were produced in 2005.

All categories of agricultural enterprises produced 372.6 tons of milk and sold 49.6 tons of cattle and poultry slaughter weight.

Plant growing is specializing in the production of forage and grain crops, flax, potatoes and vegetables.

In 2005 148.6 thousand tons of grain, 436.8 thousand tons of potatoes, 128 thousand tons of vegetables and 4.6 thousand tons of flax fiber were produced.

The flax production growth was accelerated by attracting new investments through the JSC "Federal contractual corporation "Roskontrakt" and JSC "Flax of Moscovia", that are currently playing an important role in the regional flax production.

Gross agricultural product in all categories of agricultural organizations amounted to 11.7 bln. rur in 2005 which is an 92% increase as compared to 2004, operational profit exceeded 47.3 mln. rur with profitability of 2.9%.

Below are indicated major plant growing positions in all categories of agricultural organizations:

The state support of the agricultural producers is provided through special purpose programs. There are 6 regional special purpose programs aimed at the development of the agricultural sector being implemented in 2005.

• "Social development of rural areas till the year 2010" program envisages construction (acqui-sition) of housing, establishment of educational institutions, health care institutions, electrical and telecommunication networks, development of gas and water supply systems and road construction;
• "Development of the agro-industrial complex of Smolensk region between 2005-2010" stipulates development of cattle-breeding, plant growing, forage production, financial support of young professionals and individual households, subsidies of interest rate on loans and other measures;
• "Electronic Smolensk region" is aimed at the development and availability of information access at agricultural enterprises;
• Currently 3 programs on improvement of veterinary services and preventive measures are being implemented.