Oleg Valenchuk: Gardeners have become a powerful social force

      The Congress became a forum for discussion where dialogue on key issues takes place, competencies are exchanged, and measures to support gardening and horticulture across the country are developed. The chairman of the Union of Gardeners of Russia and State Duma deputy Oleg Valenchuk emphasized that over the past 15 years gardeners have become a powerful public force whose needs and aspirations are heeded by both federal and regional authorities. “In 2022, by order of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, a Government Commission for the Development of Gardening and Horticulture was established. This opened up new opportunities: at the initiative of the President of Russia, free gasification of SNTs began; concessional electricity tariffs have been introduced in most Russian regions; problems of water supply and waste removal from gardening partnerships are being addressed; and many other pressing issues,” Oleg Valenchuk noted.

      The Congress program included a plenary session with representatives of federal and regional authorities and leaders of the gardening community; an exhibition dedicated to the special military operation, prepared by the Association of SVO Veterans of the Leningrad Region and the ANO "Kolchuga"; sporting events; round tables; and sectional work. Main topics included the development of SNT infrastructure; cooperation with resource-supplying organizations (electricity, gas, municipal solid waste removal); roads; land and property issues; and changes in legislation.

      The plenary session of the Congress opened with the performance of the Leningrad Region anthem, followed by the anthem of the Union of Gardeners. The Congress was addressed with a welcome speech by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and chairman of the Government Commission for the Development of Gardening and Horticulture Dmitry Patrushev. He noted that the country’s residents have for many centuries grown environmentally clean products on their household plots. “The Union of Gardeners of Russia makes a significant contribution to the popularization of this direction and to representing people’s interests. Today the Union is a large public organization uniting more than 60 million people and numbering about 70 regional branches,” Dmitry Patrushev emphasized.

      At the plenary session, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Union of Gardeners and the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation, whose chairman — the famed captain of the USSR national ice hockey team and now State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Fetisov — took an active part in the Congress’s proceedings. According to the parliamentarian, it is gardeners and horticulturists who today act as the main defenders of nature, producing environmentally clean products on their plots. “There are three main components of human health — air, water and food. Soviet hockey players always won because they were always a unified team. And we also ate natural products grown on our native soil. Those who imposed hamburgers with cola on us never thought about the health of our children,” Vyacheslav Fetisov said.

      Symbolically, as part of the Congress a garden-farmers’ fair took place in Gatchina that day, where districts of the Leningrad Region presented fruits, vegetables, berries, baked goods and beverages made according to signature recipes — everything that the generous Leningrad land has given.