The Agrarian Party stepped up pressure Tuesday for more agricultural spending in Russia's 1995 budget, already strained by the costs of war in Chechnya, warning that the farm sector faces a production crisis this year unless it receives increased government subsidies and credits.


"We shall demand urgent and unusual measures from the government," Mikhail Lapshin, head of the parliamentary faction, told a news conference. He said that his party would demand "necessary changes in the draft budget for 1995 to ensure the financing of spending connected to spring sowing."


Lapshin said that if measures to boost agriculture were not taken, up to 40 percent of agricultural land would remain idle in 1995 and the number of poultry and cattle would fall dramatically in winter. He said that the number of cattle had already fallen by 24 percent, the number of pigs by 36 percent, and sheep and goats by 40 percent compared with 1990, citing State Statistics Committee data.


He said that Russian agricultural production had fallen by 50 percent compared with the 1986-1990 average, with domestic food production falling by 60 percent in 1994 alone. Most of this shortfall has been made up by imports.


Lapshin said that his faction, which commands enough votes to possibly sink the 1995 draft budget during its second reading in the State Duma later this month, would demand credits at a 10 percent annual interest rate for the upcoming spring sowing campaign and state-regulated prices for mineral fertilizers. The Agrarians have also called for a special 2 percent value-added tax to finance the farm sector.


Alexander Zaveryukha, deputy prime minister in charge of agriculture and the country's top farm lobbyist, told Interfax on Monday that the 8 trillion rubles ($2.2 billion) allocated in the 1995 draft budget was insufficient to support Russia's grain industry. Last year's budget provided for 18.1 trillion rubles of investment in agriculture, 10 trillion of which was actually paid.


Lapshin, quoting State Statistics Committee data, said the farm sector presently owes 11 trillion rubles to suppliers and contractors.


Zaveryukha told Interfax that Russia would be forced to import as much as 30 million tons of grain in 1995 unless state support for domestic production was increased. Last year Russia imported 3 million tons of grain.