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Model Farm Project — In an effort to demonstrate various aspects of U.S. 

 farm management and marketing practices to a group of newly privatized Russian 

 fanners, USDA is helping the Russians set up a model farm community near St. 

 Petersburg. Twenty-one Russian farmers were selected to participate in the 

 program funded over two years at $2.3 million a year. They have received 

 farmland as private fanners. U.S. advisers include a project director and two 

 fanning couples. 



They are working with the Russians on a two-year project which is 

 featuring a variety of agricultural activities such as crop, fruit, and 

 livestock production and marketing. Last year, the model farm project covered 

 surveys and land use classification. 



This week, a U.S. potato specialist is scheduled to go to Russia to 

 prepare the project for spring planting. 



The Foreign Agricultural Service is also cooperating with a Texas A&M 

 model farm in Tatarstan helping to turn an old Russian state farm into a 

 vertically integrated agribusiness, with particular emphasis on marketing. 



Loaned Executives— USDA and U.S. agribusiness firms are placing 

 private-sector executives in food handling and processing industries in the 



