Eduard Rossel's anti-crisis concept says agriculture could save one of Russia's most industrialized regions.
"We need to resume picking berries and mushrooms. One businessman picked 180 tons of mushrooms, processed them and sold them abroad. We can gather them and feed ourselves and others," Rossel said.
"So we have three directions of work - the picking of wild berries and mushrooms, the development of the village and cleaning up," the Novy Region website quoted Rossel as saying.
Rossel also proposed drastically cutting expenditures on unemployment relief.
"There are many people who have not worked for five or 10 years. And now they go in columns to employment bureaus, especially in villages," he said, adding that the average monthly wage in regional villages was 8,000 rubles ($228), and the unemployment relief 4,900 rubles ($140).
"That's why they go to get unemployment payments, and also sell [products from private gardens] to earn extra money," he said.
It is common in Russia to see people selling home-grown produce by the roadside or on the fringes of regular markets.
