Practice and problems of agricultural crediting by private food market operators

The policy of the Russian Government in respect of agricultural credit stim ulates only a theoretical increase in the production of food. At first glan ce, necessary mechanisms have already been established; there exist systems of subsidies and compensations, State short-term credit and investments an d commodity credit. But none of these mechanisms work because there is no c omplete solution on providing credit to the whole of the agricultural chain rather than to its separate parts. Private suppliers suffer greatly from s uch conditions. The Government should think about introducing a system that protects private operators against political and other non-commercial risk s. State procurement of agricultural products could help to insure against such risks.