Revival of Hop-Production in the Chuvash Republic: Problems, Challenges and Opportunities

Lozhkin Alexander Gennadievich, Makushev Andrey Evgenievich, Pushkarenko Nikolai Nikolaevich, Kornilova Lyudmila Mikhailovna, Stepanova Valentina Vladimirovna and Fedorova Olga Nikolayevna

Abstract:

The world production of hops is concentrated in such countries as the USA, Germany, the Czech Republic, China. Quite an insignificant amount of it is produced in Russia. The main hop producing region in our country is the Chuvash Republic (82%). In Chuvashia, wide experience in cultivating this valuable industrial crop has been accumulated, the resource-and-technical base of hop-producing enterprises has been formed, hop artificial selection and seed-growing allowed to produce domestic competitive breeds of hop. The absence of harvesting and drying facilities, low mechanization of labor, a large amount of manual labor, economic reforms have led the hop-growing industry to a deep crisis, domestic breweries began to use imported hops, hopyards ceased to be cultivated. The development of the industry is restrained by the absence of domestic hop-drying facilities and harvesters, as well as an integrated complex of hop-producing machines and tools. At the same time, the availability of retained hop trellis in the area of more than 500 hectares is an important condition of the land employment for its intended purpose and further industry recovery. The task to revive the best traditions of hop-growing in the region set at the highest level is being solved by the Industry special-purpose program "Intensification of hop production and processing as a strategic direction of the Chuvash Republic development for the years 2017-2020", which aims at import substitution. A set of measures for evaluating the current performance of the industry and its development trends, identifying the prerequisites for the development of hop-growing in Chuvashia under the new economic conditions and making proposals for its development, can be implemented within the framework of a hop-growing cluster project that will identify the opportunities, risks and threats to the industry , increase the potential capacity of the region, form the brand of the republic. To solve the complex task of renewing hop production, it is necessary to create a nursery system for propagation and introduction of new highly productive hop varieties, to conduct research and development activities on engineering and exploitation of energy and resource-saving technologies with elements of biologic farming, to introduce new technologically sound and cost-effective technical means for hop-growing.