1 CONTEMPORARY AGRICULTURE IN RUSSIA

Industrialized nations often look back upon their former agrarian pasts with fondness and eminence as it is seen as a prominent step towards the path to modernization. The situation is no different in Russia—there is much romance and idealism with the past; images of great harvests, hardworking, cheerful peasants on farms, and young, strong Soviet children holding bundles of wheat are a few tropes which may come to mind. However idyllic the images of the past may be, the current agricultural system is much different. The food production system in the Russian Federation is a relatively unchanged system from the one found in the former Soviet Union; it is mismanaged, underproductive, but despite this has the possibility for much more. Structurally, the system is surviving on the skeleton of the former Soviet system—it has seen low amounts of research and development (R&D), low levels of inputs such as the use of fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, and despite holding the greatest amount and a portion of the most fertile soil of any country in the world it continues to be well below expected production levels. In lieu of the setbacks due to the history of the Soviet Union and their effects on the current system, the Russian Federation has the potential to be a global powerhouse in agricultural production