The Russian government has launched intervention on the grain market to stem rising grain prices and stabilize the domestic food market, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

“I’ve made a decision to start grain interventions to settle the general balance of grain crops in the market. I’m instructing the agriculture minister to prepare proposals on the volume of interventions and the target regions,” Medvedev told a government meeting.

Russian Grain Union President Arkady Zlochevsky said in August domestic bread prices may rise 5-10 percent in the fall in the wake of rising grain prices driven by drought in some of Russian regions.

Russia has cut its harvest forecast for this year from 80-85 million tons to no more than 75 million tons of grain. Russia harvested 94.2 million tons of grain in 2011.