Weather conditions holding back harvest in Belarus
MINSK, 27 July (BelTA) – Belarus has adequate technical capacities and human resources to harvest crops in time, but difficult weather is holding up growers from doing their work, Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Zayats told reporters following his meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, BelTA has learned.
According to him, by the morning of 27 July, about 16% of the grain area was cropped, 1.156 million tonnes were harvested with a yield of 36.2 centners per hectare. “Harvesting is held back by weather conditions. The technical readiness is very high, combines are in good condition, drying facilities are fully operational. We are waiting for good weather to resume harvesting. We use every hour to harvest grain crops. Technical capabilities and human resources are sufficient for harvesting everything in time and without losses,” the deputy prime minister emphasized.
According to him, the government and the head of state took all the necessary decisions to facilitate grain harvesting, including decisions to provide agricultural organizations with fuel, spare parts for equipment, and additional vehicles.
Winter rapeseed harvesting is in progress now; 61% of the area has been combined so far; the yield is 24.4 centners per hectare, which is higher than last year. According to Leonid Zayats, this year there are plans to crop more than 800,000 tonnes of winter rapeseed, in addition to spring rapeseed. This year’s gross harvest of rapeseed will not be lower than last year’s. Thus, public procurement orders will be fulfilled, the vice premier assured. He recalled that enterprises should supply about 1 million tonnes of grain this year, including 807,000 tonnes of food grain, as part of the public procurement order.
Some 60,000 tonnes of high-quality food grain has already been shipped as part of the order, and 20,000 tonnes of malting barley has also been sold. “As for public procurement orders, they will be fulfilled in full this year,” Leonid Zayats assured.
