Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will hold a teleconference meeting for the 2016 spring season.

As stated in the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers, the meeting will be held in the videoconference mode with participation of heads of subjects of Federation. In particular, the planned live broadcasts from Bashkortostan, Daghestan, Crimea, Altai and Krasnodar territories, Belgorod, Volgograd, Kurgan, Kursk, Lipetsk, Saratov and Tambov regions, where already started field work.

The event will be attended by the Minister of agriculture Alexander Tkachev, Minister of energy Alexander Novak, Minister of economic development Alexei Ulyukayev and representatives of other interested agencies.

As previously reported by the Ministry of agriculture, this year the total acreage is projected at 79,43 million hectares, which is 436 thousand ha (0.5%) more than in 2015. Sowing of spring crops is planned on the area of 52,4 million hectares, which is 0.4% more than last year.

Costs for spring field work this year, the Ministry of agriculture was evaluated in 326 billion rubles, of which 189 billion rubles of loans. The total cost of selkhozmash (sowing, harvesting, collecting, storage) is estimated at 1.2 trillion rubles.

A traditionally problematic issue by the beginning of spring field works are the prices for fertilizers and fuels and lubricants. The head of the Ministry Alexander Tkachev in early March assured President Vladimir Putin that the security of agricultural fertiliser this year is 7% higher than in 2015, and the availability of fuels and lubricants - 12%.

At the same time, Putin instructed the Ministry to closely monitor the prices of fertilizers, preventing them from excessive growth. The Ministry of agriculture has already warned that in case of sharp growth, the Cabinet may introduce export duties on fertilizers.

While the reasons for such measures do not, said earlier in the FAS and the Ministry of industry and trade of the Russian Federation. As reported TASS in the middle of March the Deputy chief of management of control of the chemical industry and agribusiness FAS of Russia Sergey Vershinin, average prices for complex fertilisers in 2016 increased no more than 5% compared with November last year. However, the Agency continues to monitor the market.