In the Angara region, gardening and allotment farming remain an important part of the regions economy and social life. Dacha plots grow a large share of potatoes, vegetables, fruit and berries, and provide jobs for many residents, including pensioners. However, roundtable participants noted that in recent years road, power grid and utility problems have worsened, and old ties with core enterprises were lost. Regional authorities admit current support is insufficient and plan to work on a regional law for extra aid to gardening associations.

More than 1,300 gardening and allotment associations operate in the Angara region. Every year, more than 15% of the potatoes, 25% of the vegetables, and 95% of the fruits and berries produced in the Angara region by all categories of farms are grown on dacha plots. Gardeners and allotment holders not only provide food for themselves, but also help solve the problem of employment for pensioners and citizens not engaged in the agricultural and industrial sectors of the region’s economy. Employment of the adult population in gardening and allotment associations reaches 54.1% of the number of residents of the Irkutsk Region.
At the same time, as representatives of the regional gardeners’ union, as well as other non-profit associations of allotment holders and dacha owners, noted at the round table, ties with the basic enterprises that helped resolve issues of arranging, repairing, and maintaining the engineering infrastructure of the gardening associations have been broken over the past years. Issues of maintaining access roads and power grids have become more acute.
As reported by Irina Bondarenko, Minister of Agriculture of the Irkutsk Region, the regional government and municipalities provide certain financial support to citizens who are entitled to discounted travel to the locations of gardening associations.
– Today this is not enough. It is time to seriously consider measures of state support for the region’s gardening, allotment, and dacha non-profit associations. We will work on the relevant draft regional law, – Irina Bondarenko emphasized.
Based on materials from the press service of the Government of the Irkutsk Region