MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev has been appointed head of an anti-crisis working group in the agriculture sphere, a first deputy prime minister said Saturday.

"Gordeyev takes charge of the working group, to contain representatives of all six banks [financing the agricultural sector], from today," Viktor Zubkov told journalists after consultations on priority measures to stabilize the funding of agricultural producers.

Zubkov, who in particular supervises the implementation of the state agricultural policy, said the Agriculture Ministry, together with the largest banks providing agricultural loans - state savings bank Sberbank, Rosselkhozbank, Russian energy giant Gazprom's banking arm Gazprombank, MDM, state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB) and VTB - will define priorities in funding agricultural projects.

The working group will monitor the situation and report to the first deputy prime minister daily.

"In case of failures, the government will intervene. We have to prevent failures on the foodstuffs market, as any failure means increased consumer demand and tension in society," Zubkov said.

The first deputy premier also said there will be no direct injections from the budget or Central Bank reserves into the agricultural sector.

Russia's financial system has been affected by a global credit crunch which started in the U.S. and quickly spread to Asia and Europe leading to record losses on Russia's financial markets, rising interest rates and a liquidity shortage.