Belarusian farmers urged to pick up grain harvesting pace

Belarusian Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Vladimir Grakun informed the president that grain and leguminous crops (excluding corn, buckwheat and millet) had been harvested from one third of the targeted area in the country. Brest Oblast has almost cropped half of its arable lands, while Vitebsk Oblast has barely reached 15% of its target.

Almost 2.1 million tonnes of grain have been threshed in the country. The harvesting pace is much higher than last year, while yields are slightly lower. Grodno Oblast is the undisputed leader here with yields averaging 49.3 centners per hectare. Just to compare: yields in Gomel Oblast are only 20.3 centers per hectare.

“We need to reach 6% [of the area which needs to be harvested] a day. In this case we will get more or less desired results,” the president tasked the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry.

Upon arrival in the region Aleksandr Lukashenko took notice of recently uncertain weather conditions. “I mentioned the current changeable weather patterns at the recent government conference,” he said.

The president recalled his instruction to focus on early maturing crops, especially in the northern parts of the country. This year's results are showing the correctness of the chosen approach. “It is good that we had winter barley and rapeseed. We managed to harvest a fifth of them as of early August,” the head of state said.

Special attention was paid to flax yields and its cultivation technology. Aleksandr Lukashenko was assured that the country's linen mills would have enough raw materials for their uninterrupted operation. However, Vitebsk Oblast will not be able to meet the target for long fiber.

The head of state called it a negative trend as Vitebsk Oblast had always been known as a flax-growing region. He suggested sowing flax on the President's experimental field, doing everything according to the technology and evaluating the result.

“We need to finish pulling flax. We have a target and we need to meet it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

The head of state, as usual, was more interested in major issues rather than in successes. “What issues need to be addressed during the current harvesting campaign? In Grodno Oblast in particular,” he asked.

The president was assured that there were no issues at all and that any emerging issues were resolved on a routine basis.

“Are there any issues that need to be dealt with across the country?” Aleksandr Lukashenko asked.

“All the issues have been solved with your help. I mean both fuel supplies and availability of harvesters,” Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Zayats replied.