Digital Service Helps Farmers Find Available Land
The Moscow Region has launched a new online service that helps farmers identify unused agricultural land. Authorities plan to bring 10,000 hectares into active agricultural production.
Bringing unused agricultural land back into cultivation is one of the most important challenges facing Russian agriculture. Doing so can increase crop-production capacity, reduce the risk of land degradation, and help preserve the fertility of valuable soils.
Digital Map of Agricultural Land
According to the latest data, Russia has 379.8 million hectares of agricultural land, including about 197 million hectares of farmland. At the same time, roughly 31 million hectares remain unused. To put that figure into perspective, Germany's entire agricultural area covers about 16.7 million hectares. Russian farmers therefore have an opportunity to bring into production an area nearly twice the size of Germany's farmland. Achieving that requires a transparent and easy-to-use information resource - an accessible digital land database that helps farmers identify available parcels.
Farmers in the Moscow Region can now search for additional land resources through a new online service - an interactive map designed to help users identify agricultural plots. A new layer called Zemli NGS has been added to the Moscow Region Geoportal, providing information on available parcels located on land classified as unallocated state property. The service is available through the Zemlya fermeram (Land for Farmers) section.
Economic Potential of Land
The resource allows prospective farmers and agricultural businesses to evaluate available land online and quickly obtain key information about a parcel. Users can search for land in any municipality, making it easier to identify properties that fit the operational needs of a particular farm.
After selecting a parcel in a specific municipality, a farmer gains access to information about its size and location. That provides a foundation for assessing its agricultural potential. The process can be enhanced by combining parcel data with digital maps of fertile soils developed by researchers at the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute under the Future Agrotechnologies National Center for World-Class Research. Using these digital tools, farmers can evaluate the economic value of land and then begin the leasing process with support from the Moscow Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Transparent Land Market
The new digital service addresses an important challenge by increasing transparency in land allocation. It makes information about available land publicly accessible and helps reduce corruption risks associated with distributing this valuable asset.
The platform builds on a broader set of digital resources developed to simplify land selection for agricultural producers in the Moscow Region. Since late 2022, farmers have been able to submit applications for land through a digital service operated by the regional Ministry of Agriculture and then participate in electronic auctions for land-use rights. The platform has already been included in the White Book of Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service, which highlights pro-competition practices recommended for adoption in other regions.
The Zemli NGS project is also creating a new opportunity for the IT sector by driving demand for business services that combine digital land-management platforms, geographic information systems, cadastral data, and support programs for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises. Its objective is to reduce administrative burdens on smaller farms and simplify the process of locating and securing land while reducing the need for in-person visits to government offices.
In the future, Zemli NGS will become part of the federal Zemlya (Land) program, which runs from 2022 through 2031 and is designed to bring agricultural land back into productive use while supporting the development of land-reclamation infrastructure. That integration is expected to make farm expansion easier across Russian regions and support increased food production.
Over time, digital platforms for evaluating agricultural land and systems that enable transparent land allocation could also be offered to partner countries seeking more transparent management of farmland resources and land markets.
