Project proposal:
Setting up commercial agricultural production of wild taiga berries based on the traditional subsistence practices of the indigenous peoples of the north

Spring 2002
F. Yu. Chekanov

Application for financial support
The author of this project proposal, F. Chekanov, addressed the ANSIPRA Secretariat with the request to publish the proposal in our Bulletin. The project has already been submitted to RITC (Russian Indigenous Training Center, Moscow). We hope that the project will find investors. A more complete version of the project proposal in Russian language can be obtained from the ANSIPRA Secretariat.

Applicant: Fyodor Yurevich Chekanov
Mailing address: ul. Kalinina d. 34, kv. 10, 628012 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Phone: (home) +7 (34671) 2-19-29

Contact person: Anatoly Ivanovich Rayshev, Phone: +7 (34671) 9-20-13, 9-20-33
Application amount: US $ 200,000

Project author: Fyodor Yurevich Chekanov

Capacity: individual

Date: 22 January 2002
This project is the intellectual property of its author. It is of commercial and confidential nature, and, as such, it is protected by law.

Keywords:
Gathering, wild taiga berries, plantations, cultivation, berries, cranberries, red bilberries, agricultural technology, traditional economy

Project description:
Due to their extensive production methods, traditional economies seem to be fundamentally non-competitive on the free-market.
From the point of view of the author of this project, the above-mentioned problem can be resolved by a limited introduction of modern intensive production methodologies into the traditional economies of the indigenous peoples of the North, so that they can become valuable participants in the commodity market. This has been the case with reindeer breeding in the Scandinavian countries over the past few decades.
This project proposes the establishment of an experimental farm for the commercial cultivation of wild taiga berries: cranberry, red bilberry etc. Its goal is to apply intensive agricultural methods to some of the traditional subsistence activities of the indigenous peoples of the North and, on this basis, to establish competitive agricultural production.

Proposed project results:
Introduction of new kinds of high-yield berries, developing agricultural methods of cultivating plantations with taiga berries, and introducing them into the economy.

Entire project description: rtf file for downloading