More challenging than USA sure, I'll concede that. But more challenging than Russia - no. Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree here. You'll notice a good chunk of Russian territory is either heavily forested, swamped or in the same mountains as China. We don't share a border for nothing.
And the so-called European part of Russia (west of Ural), where a good chunk of agriculture is taking place, is known as the "area of difficult agriculture" for ages. It's still used to farm, mind, but even the relatively comfortable areas around Volga and Oka rivers have a soil layer only about 40 cm deep.
You know which areas had top tier agriculture environment? The ones no longer in Russia - Ukraine, Moldova, even bits of Belarus. That's where you get quality black soil, warmer average climate and all that.
More challenging than USA sure, I'll concede that. But more challenging than Russia - no. Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree here. You'll notice a good chunk of Russian territory is either heavily forested, swamped or in the same mountains as China. We don't share a border for nothing.
And the so-called European part of Russia (west of Ural), where a good chunk of agriculture is taking place, is known as the "area of difficult agriculture" for ages. It's still used to farm, mind, but even the relatively comfortable areas around Volga and Oka rivers have a soil layer only about 40 cm deep.
You know which areas had top tier agriculture environment? The ones no longer in Russia - Ukraine, Moldova, even bits of Belarus. That's where you get quality black soil, warmer average climate and all that.