Russian President Vladimir Putin is chairing a session of the Council for national projects in the Kremlin, which met for the first time this year.
The current session is devoted to the development of agriculture.
Earlier, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said it would consider a federal program to modernize this sector.
The demography program is another item on the Council's agenda.
"We've entered the state of practical implementation of such an ambitious task as demographic program. It requires much serious work," Medvedev said.
The national project in the field of agriculture comprises three directions: accelerated development of cattle breeding, stimuli for the development of small agri-businesses, and affordable housing for young specialists in villages. A total of 34.9 billion roubles will be spent on these purposes in 2006-2007.
Russia will allocate 230.9 billion roubles for all the four national projects this year.
Budget allocations for improving the demographic situation this year will reach 32.3 billion roubles. These includes payments of so-called maternity capital /250,000 roubles for the birth of second and each subsequent child/ and other additional allowances for children.
MOSCOW, March 7 (Itar-Tass)
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